Last Second Chance
by Luxdesire
Summary: Michael Hill is a well known football player on the Philadelphia Eagles team. And he's dating world known super model Rose Grey. One night he goes to his girlfriends fashion show and sees someone from his past. In the show. He doesn't know how to feel but she does.
1. Chapter 1 (Full)

"Hey man, you almost ready," I hear Kyle from shout out from our hotel bedroom. I stand still looking into the bathroom mirror. I'm wearing my black Hugo Boss tuxedo, a white button up shirt with a black tie. My black hair is slicked back with gel down the middle between my 1 inch buzz cut on each side of my head. You'd think I'm going to a funeral but actually the complete opposite. The Victoria's Secret Fashion Show. I was invite not only because I'm the starting QB for the Philadelphia Eagles, but my girlfriend, Rose Grey, is in the show tonight. She and I have been going out for about six months now. We met on a Nike photoshoot set about eight months ago, texted each other for a little bit and here we are now. Nike just endorsed me a year ago and because of that I've done three photoshoots so far. The one that involved Rose, we were in a weight lifting room and posing on the equipment. It was pretty hot. This is her first year in the Victoria's Secret fashion show, so I know it's a big deal for her and I have to show up. She's been in Calvin Klein and Michael Kors fashion show, but tonight is more reviling and televised. I made sure to bring my "best man" today Kyle otherwise I definitely won't be able to make it through the night. I mean don't get me wrong, I'm all about seeing half naked girls walk on the runway with lacey underwear, but Rose is extra nervous today and dealing with all her phone calls and texts kind of got me in a dull mood.

"Come on man, we have to leave soon," Kyle stated as he walked into the bathroom. He was also wearing a tuxedo but a white one with a black button up and a white tie. I think he looked ridiculous but that's why he's single. I mean, he lays girls every weekend but that's only because he's a professional football player as well. We're both on the same team, he plays wide receiver, and we're practically a package deal. "With all the press outside this hotel room and I'm sure inside the show we need to leave early. Also you can't forget the pink carpet."

"Alright, alright," I say as I switch off the light and make my way past him out of the bathroom. "Rose has been blowing up my phone today. I can tell she's really nervous. She keeps on saying, 'I'm going to slip and fall. Something is going to fall of me.'" I grab my shoes that are laying by the side of the bed, sit down and start to put them on.

"Well, just make sure you clap every time she passes you. Wave, blow kisses, you know, all the girly shit she likes. Besides think of all the sex you'll be getting tonight," Kyle said with a smirk on his face. "Maybe I can get myself some tonight as well. Good thing we got a room at the hotel all the girls are staying at." He's such a filthy animal I thought to myself.

I finished putting on my shoes and stood up. "Alright, it's 5, let's get going." I open the hotel room door and walk into the hallway. Kyle follows me and I can hear the door shut behind us. I start walking to the elevator doors and press the down arrow. We're spending the night on the third floor in one of the Trump Hotel suites. It was a pretty nice suite. We had our own bedroom on opposite sides of the room; of course Kyle thought that was a great idea for all the sex we're supposed to be having tonight, a common area, a kitchen and a double sink bathroom. Nice view of the New York City skyline as well. The elevator door slides open and two girls appear. I can tell they're fans by the way their eyes lit up, cheeks started to blush and giggles started to form. I hear a huff from Kyle. I step into the elevator and press G right away. Kyle follows behind me and steps between the two girls and I. The elevator door closes with a "ding" and I wait.

"I'm sorry to bother the both of you," one of the girls finally speaks up, "but do you mind if we get a quick selfie?" I look over at Kyle and he was already stepping in between the two of them.

"Sure," I say under my breath and step closer to the girl that asked. She lifted her IPhone 6 Plus, clicked the camera app and pressed the center button. And like that, the elevator doors opened to the ground floor. Perfect timing. "Have a good night ladies," I say over my shoulder as I step out and start making my way to the double doors.

"Thank you so much! We love you! Good luck this season!" Both the girls are shouting from the elevator. Kyle finally catches up to me, we pass the lobby desk and the bar head towards the black Cadillac Escalade waiting for us right outside.

"Oh my God Mike!" "Kyle over here!" "I love you guys!" "Hey do you think you'll make it to the playoffs this year?" These kinds of comments are coming from every directions, mostly from girls. Camera flashes are starting to go off and a crowd is starting to form around us. Some shoving and pushing started but we made it out the door and into the car.

"That's what we get for the professional life," Kyle states as he slams the door and we start driving to the show. Luckily the show isn't too far from the hotel, about a 5 minute drive. But this is New York City, so with the traffic more like a 15 minute drive, especially at 5 o'clock. We start making our way down Broadway Street and towards 52nd. I see tourists and their families walking down the sidewalks. It's a beautiful day outside for the beginning of December. The sun is shining through the clouds and it's around 60 degrees. I feel my phone vibrate and I already know who the text is from.

"Are you on your way? A lot of the guest are already here. Plus you'll have to walk the pink carpet. I'm already changed in my first costume. One of the straps broke off but we got it fixed. THANK GOD! See you down the runway! Love you! Xx" I read the text message to myself without having the read the contact name. I quickly text back, "On my way now. You'll do great, relax! Love you too." I press send and look out the window again. I see that we're already at 53rd, almost there. The car comes to a stop at the sidewalk right in front of the Victoria's Secret Fashion Show 2016 show. From the window I can see the "Pink Carpet", something that Kyle and I will have to walk it order to get in to the building. It's like the red carpet for the Grammys, but pink because it's Victoria's Secret. Like the Grammys, there are tons of reporters and photographers behind the barricade waiting to take our photos and ask us questions.

"Here we go," Kyle says under his breath and opens the car door to the beginning of the pink carpet. Reporters flood to the left and right of him like usual. I step out of the car right behind him and start to make my way to the backdrop where the both of us will answer some questions, pose, and enter the building. Kind of feels like we're the models.

"Michael over here." "Kyle. Mike!" "We love you guys." "Hey guys, turn over here!" "Can we ask you some questions?" Reporters and fans shouted at us from every direction. I follow Kyle over to the backdrop, turn around and stand next to him. We stand next to each other for a couple minutes and let the reporters take out photos. Flashing lights, shutter noise, and screaming goes off.

I can barely hear Kyle say, "I'm going to go over to _People Magazine_ and answering some questions. I'll meet you inside in like 10 minutes man." He leaves my side and walks over to George Lopez for Q &A. I look out at the sea of reporters and see Ryan Seacrest with E! News. I'll talk to him, he's always a chill guy to chat too. I make my way over and hear him speak into his microphone and at the camera, "Oh lucky us! Here we have star quarterback Michael Hill from the Philadelphia Eagles! How are you man?" He asks as I approach him and pats me on the back.

"I'm great! Thanks Ryan. You look good." I tell him as I shake his hand and look into the camera.

"Oh thanks," he responds with a smile, "but not as good as the ladies tonight." He sneaks in a laugh. "So, who are you most excited to see tonight?" Silly question.

"Oh come on Ryan, don't play dumb."

"I'm not," he squeaks, "There's going to be a lot of good looking girls on that runway tonight."

"That's true." I say in all honesty. "But I'm really excited to see Rose tonight. She has worked really hard to get here. I know that's she's very nervous for tonight, but there's no reason to be. She'll do great! All the girls will."

"Good answer Mike. I think she'll approve." He turns towards me and his face gets serious. "But on a more important note, do you think the Eagles can finally make it to the playoffs this year?" I knew this question would come up. It always does.

"You know Ryan, I think we have a real shot this year. The team looks great, our defense has gotten stronger since last season. We're passing the ball better and with the new coach this year, I really think the Eagles fans have something to look forward to this year." At least I hope they do.

"Well good luck this season buddy, I'm sure I'll be seeing you more and have a fun time tonight," Ryan closes with as he extends his hand and gives me a shake.

"Thanks Ryan, always good to see you," I say as I shake his hand, smile, look into the camera, and give a little wink. God, I should be in the show tonight. I can still hear all the screaming fans and reporters as I start walking into the building. I pass where George Lopez is standing and see that Kyle isn't there. Must have already went inside. I pass security at the door and walk into the lobby. There a huge bar to my right and the entrance to the runway seating to my left. The lobby had this rich, wealthy feel to it. I could see white marble around every corner, chandlers hanging from the ceiling, nice high top chairs at the bar with plasma screen TVs in the center. People who can't get into the show can watch from the bar and to my "surprise" I see Kyle ordering a drink. I make my way through the small amount of press that was inside the building and take a seat next to Kyle. I wave down the waiter and ask for a scotch on the rocks.

"Yeah, going to need something to make it through this night." Kyle said over in my direction has he took a sip of his Heineken.

"Hey, I don't think it's going to be that bad. We'll watch girls walk around in their underwear, go back stage for a bit, apparently there's some after party and back to our rooms," I respond as the waiter hands me my drink. I raise it to him as a thank you and take a sip.

"We have to go back stage and to an after party?" Kyle starts to whine. I cock my head to the left and roll my eyes. Deal with it. I look down at my watch and it's already 6 o'clock. We have an hour to kill. I look up at the TV's and see that the Giants vs. Packers game is on. Go Packers, I guess. I wouldn't want to go against the Giants in the playoff cause let's be honest, we're out then. The game is pretty close too, 23-27 Packers. Kyle and I sit there in silence for a bit sipping our drinks. I look back down at my watch and realize its 6:30. Time to get going.

"We should get going," I say as I get up from the bar, push my chair in and start to head to our seats. Kyle takes his last sip of beer, places it on the bar top, and follows me. We get to the double black doors and there's a list of all the guests and their seat number next to their name on a podium. It's in alphabetical order so I find my name and see 105, seat 5. "Where are you sitting?"

"Better be next to you," he mumbles while looking for his name. "Yup seat 4, let's go." We enter and it looks like a regular arena for a fashion show. The cat walk is stretched out in the middle and seats to the left, right, and in front of it. There's a salute of "Victoria's Secret" behind the catwalk, where the backstage is I presume. We find our seat while walking through the crowd of other celebrities and photographers. There's a lot of other big name athletes here as-well, Roger Federer, LeBron James, Steph Curry, Tom Brady, as well as other models that aren't in the show. But I don't know their names. Our seats are basically in the middle of the runway and a TV camera to the left of me and I see one across the stage basically pointed at me. "So you better clap and blow kiss to her," Kyle says pointing at the camera across the catwalk and taking his seat.

"Attention ladies and gentlemen," I hear an announcement being made for all the guests to hear, "if you can please find your seat, the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion will begin shortly." I take my seat and can see that Steph Curry is headed towards me.

"Hey man, good to see you," he says taking a seat next to me. He extends his right hand and I shake it.

"You too Curry," I whisper. Steph Curry of course is part of the NBA and plays for the Golden State Warriors. A lot of people consider him as the greatest shooter in NBA history, I sure do. I've gone to a couple of his games and he is amazing. Last season I've seen him at a couple of my games as well so we have a mutual ground. We've hung at other sport tournaments and charity banquets too. He doesn't have a girlfriend in the show, or one in general, but from what I was told, one of the themes in the show is "Professional Athletes". Rose told me about it a week ago. Each model was able to pick their favorite athlete and represent them through their costume. Of course she picked me. I am interested in how the costume is going to look. I'm guessing someone picked Steph. Everyone else is starting to take their seats and spot lights start to fade.

"Good evening ladies and gentleman," the announcer started to speaker again, "and welcome to the 2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show." On the screen behind the catwalk, the word _Firework_ appears. I'm guessing that's the theme for this opening walk.

Now it's completely dark. Pitch black.

The catwalk lights up all the sudden and I can hear the song _Irresistible_ by Fall Out Boy start to blare around the room.

"Here we go," Kyle whispers. Damn straight, I thought.


	2. Chapter 2

_Coming in unannounced, drag my nails on the tile_ _  
_ _I just followed your scent, you can just follow my smile …_

Those lyrics started to blare into my eardrum and right on cue one of the models strutted out from the right side of the stage and struck a pose on center stage. She started to walk with confidence and a huge smile on her face. She really did look like a firework. Her bra and lacy thong is a deep red color and she's wearing a gold chain that wrapped around her neck, runs down her torso, and then split into two chains wrapping around her hips. Looked like a peace sign actually. Her "wings" didn't really look like wings though. More like a ferris wheel blinking all different colors. Her long curly hair was bouncing up and down to the beat of the song and her arms were swaying from back to front. I probably shouldn't be looking at her for this long or else I'll hear it from Rose, or even Kyle. I sneak a look at Kyle and then Steph and see them both drooling over this women.

"Damn," Kyle let out, "good thing you're dating one of the models or else we wouldn't be here."

"You're welcome," I respond with heavy sarcasm. I look back up at the stage and the first model was already at the end of the catwalk and blowing a kiss into the camera. When she turned around to start walking back, another model emerged at the back of the catwalk. She looked amazing as well and you could tell she had a lot confidence by the way she walked. I wonder if Rose is in this opening walk, I thought to myself. I have to make sure to pay attention and not miss her.

 _I'm gonna get you to burst just like you were a bubble_ _  
_ _Frame me up on your wall just to keep me out of trouble …_

Model after model kept on showing up, walking the catwalk, and then disappearing backstage. Still no Rose. And just like that she walked on from stage left, with a huge smile and hands in the air waving to the audience. She looked beautiful. Her costume is simpler from the others but I don't mind. She wore a florescent pink, jewel studded bra and a matching thong that had a firework silhouette on each side of her hip. Her brunette hair is in loose curls and bopping up and down. She's making her way down to the middle of the catwalk and I can tell by her eyes that she's searching for me. About five feet away from me, we lock eyes and I can tell she's relieved. She blows me a kiss from both of her hands and I blow one right back. Hopefully that was the right move. She keeps walking towards the camera at the end of the stage, pose and starts walking back. At this time another model makes her way onto the stage but I make sure not to take my eyes off Rose. She's making her way back and gives me a small wave. I continue to keep clapping and sustain my smile. She gets to back of the stage and disappears.

"Dude, Mike!" Kyle is nudging me with his elbow in the arm at this point.

"What?" I turn towards him annoyed at this point. I'm expecting him to say some smartass comment about how Rose looked.

"Did you just see that girl?" Kyle asks me with a little panic in his voice while pointing to the girl that walked on the stage after Rose. I look up at the stage but the model had her back towords us at this point and was making her way off. She was wearing a coral teal bra and thong. A long white piece of lace hung from the bra straps and formed a train that that followed her every step. Straight long blond hair stopped at her mid-back and had a real shine to it.

I look back at him, "No Why? Is she hot?" Probably shouldn't be asking that question.

I hear Steph Curry to the right of me respond, "Hell yeah! Sorry to overhear."

I give a quick laugh and look back over at Kyle. At this point Kyle is running his hand through his hair like he's seen a ghost. "You didn't see her at all?" He asks one more time.

"No man, why?!" I'm starting to get annoyed.

"Dear lord. I'll point her out to you when she shows up again." And he left it at that. What. The. Hell. Man. Either this girl is hot as fuck or maybe someone that we both know. Either way, he probably just wants to sleep with her tonight. Pig.

I focus back to the show and the song is coming to an end. The last model exists the stage and a loud applause erupts from the audience. The stage goes back to black and the screen changes from _Firework_ to _Wedding Night._

I can hear Steph let out a "Yeah!" out of excitement. He grabs my right shoulder and give it a little shake. "Get ready man!"

Rose probably isn't in this theme, I mean, she was just on stage like two minutes ago. Same as that other girl. No way anyone can change that fast. At least I'll be able to sit back, relax and watch this theme in peace. The lights on the catwalk start to fade back on and the faint background music starts to build up.

 _I still hear your voice when you sleep next to me_ _  
_ _I still feel your touch in my dreams_ _  
_ _Forgive me my weakness…_

Oh god, I think to myself, this song. I guess it fit the theme pretty well though. A very tall model emerges from the back of the stage and damn does she look good. She's wearing an all-black corset with huge black angle wings. She had heels on with straps that reached her mid-thigh. I could hear both Steph and Kyle breathing deeply. She's strutting her way down the stage and my eyes keep following. I start to feel another poke in my rib. What now?

"Her, that's her." Kyle spitted out before I could question him. He was staring deeply at this particular model. That quick, I think to myself, she was just in the first show. Maybe Rose will be in this theme as well. I turn my head from the front of the stage to the back in order to see this mystery model. Right away I feel my heart sink to my stomach, my stomach turn into knots and my face start to turn red. Shit. Shit. Shit. Shit. At this point I'm mouthing that word over and over again to myself.

"Yeah, that's what I thought," Kyle whispered as he could tell what I was thinking. Nikita. Memories of Kyle's and mine high school years started popping up in my head. No, I thought to myself, just let it go. This isn't going to ruin my night. Nikita's wearing an all-white corset and thong. There was a strap of fabric with a buckle that connected the two undergarments. Each of her white fluffy wings was bigger than her body. I'm surprised she can even stand up. She wore about five inch heels that covered her ankles. Her long blond hair were in beach waves with flowers throughout it. I wonder if she's seen my in the audience yet. She makes her way past Kyle and I, as well as the drooling Steph Curry. She keeps her eyes on locked in front of her, but continues to wave and blow kisses to the side cameras. At the end of the stage, she takes her pose, like usual and turns around to make her wat back. God damn. This is going to be on hell of a mess of a night. As she's about to make her way past us, Kyle decides to be his dumb as self.

"Yeah, Nikita!" He yells in her direction as she's walking past us. I'm going to commit murder tonight. Right there and then, she turns towards us and I can tell she was caught by surprise. Our eyes locked for a split second but she seemed to keep her cool. More than I did. She gave us a little wave while keeping her smile and continued to make her way off the stage. The camera right across my seat panned from Nikita to me. I shift my head to the other model right away to make it look like I'm not staring at one girl, other than Rose, for too long. But shit.

"I'm going to kill you later on tonight," I say through my gridded teeth in Kyle's direction. I sneak a look over to Nikita and see her last step as she exits the stage. Thank God. Hopefully that's the last time I'll see her on the stage. I wouldn't be able to make it through the night if I had to see her on the stage again. Practically naked. Never in my high school career would I have thought I was see Nikita naked. I continue to focus on the rest of the models making their way on and off the stage. But not focus too long. As I expected, Rose wasn't in this theme. How the hell did Nikita change that fast, I think to myself again. Let it go.

 _Can't you feel my heart beat fast,_

 _I want this to last,_

 _Need you by my side…_

The _Wedding Night_ theme song comes to an end and the last model makes her grand exit. Under the given circumstances, that was an amazing theme. Costumes, models, energy, etc. was great. The lights dim down again like previously and on the screen it reads "Three minute break". Praise the Lord.

Kyle jumps out of his seat and grabs me by the collar to follow him. We make out way past the crowd of people and out of the room through the black double doors. He keeps dragging me until we get to the bar.

"Two shots of Bacardi," he practically yells at the bartender. He looks over at me, "You probably need two for yourself." He knows me too well. He must be freaking out too. The bartender places the two shots in front of us. Kyle grabs them both, hands me one, clinks them and downs his. I down mine and it's just what I needed. I feel my nerves calm down for a bit. "I can't believe this," Kyle breaks the silence.

"I know." I say just to say something. I'm still waiting for the Bacardi to kick in completely. "Did you know about this?"

"No way man," Kyle answers in disbelief. "As soon as we left high school I cut ties. Especially the end of college. With basically everyone." I look at him and nod in agreement. He's right, both of us cut ties. Once people started to hear that we were in the NFL draft during our sophomore year of college, everyone wanted to be our friends. It was hard to differentiate your true friends and just fans. I look up at the TV screens and see that the Giants won again the Packers. Bloody hell. This night keeps on getting worse and worse.

"I can't believe I've never heard of her from Rose. She always talks about her model friends. Annoying really." I say in Kyle's direction as I place the shot glass down on the counter and readjust my cuffs. Maybe this is Nikita's first fashion show and they haven't met yet.

"I don't know man," he stammers, "but time to go back in. Let's just finish this night." Agreed. He puts his glass down and starts to walk back into the room. I follow him in and we both take our seats. Curry was still in his seat and swallowed into his phone. The room starts to fill back up again with guests and chattering started to build up about the models are all around me.

"Wedding night was amazing."

"Those models look great this year. A lot of new faces."

"Beautiful faces."

"That one model in all-white was breath taking." Can I catch a damn break?

I feel a pair of hands hit my shoulders from behind, "Rose looked great up there man. One lucky guy." I look up behind me and see Roger Federer standing.

"Thank you Fed." I say with a smile and turn back around to face the stage. Finally I get a comment about Rose that's not from Kyle. Guests start to take their seats and lights start to dim down once more. I look over to the screen in the back to see what theme is up next. _Inspiration._ I'm guessing this is the athlete inspiration theme. Meaning that Rose will definitely be in this one. That gets me a bit more excited about this theme and I start to ease up. 'Hey, Rose will be in this one," I shift towards Kyle's direction.

"Act happy," he mouths. Dick. It's pitch black now and silence overcomes the room.

 _Hey baby girl_ _  
_ _Lookin' all done up_ _  
_ _I wanna know_ _  
_ _Where did you come from?_ _  
_ _The heat begins to raise_

Oh, I like this song. The first model emerges and it's not Rose. Or Nikita. This one was "supporting" LeBron James. You can tell easily because she's wearing a long basketball jersey with the team name Cavaliers on the front and number 23 on the back. The jersey went down to her belly button and she wore hip huggers underwear that matched the dark burgundy of the team's color. On the back of the underwear it read "James". I don't remember seeing LeBron in the audience but maybe he's sitting around here somewhere. She continued to strut her stuff and another model walked on out. Rose. She looked like an eagle. Original. But still hot. Her wings were a dark green and had the feeling of an eagle. She wore a green jewel studded bra with a white outline of the number 22. That's my number on the team. Her thong was made of white lace and laced shoes all the way up. Amazing. Rose walked past me and did her little "blow a kiss" bit. I stop clapping and blow her a kiss back. She keeps walking straight and reaches the end of the stage.

"Feeling better," Kyle sneaks in before Rose turned around. Yes. She starts walking back now and gives a little wave. She makes her way out and other models come one by one. There was a model that represented Roger Federer, Eli Manning, Carli Loyd, etc. The song was getting to its last verse and the model that was wearing a soccer outfit made her way off the stage.

And then something strange started to happen to the stage. The stage started to lower but still have a six inch ledge. Water came rushing from the front of the stage and covered the surface. The water didn't spill over into the audience due to the ledge. Fog started to come up and it looked like a scene from a horror movie. The last verse of the song started up and on that beat a model walked out. Shit.

 _Such a beautiful crowd, level's on ten_ _  
_ _People standing on chairs_ _  
_ _With their hands up in the air…_

Next to me Steph Curry let out a load "yeah" in excitement and he had every right too. Nikita. She walked out representing him and I'm not going to lie, I felt a bit jealous. She was wearing a Gold State Warrior jersey that was cut off right below her chest. The Golden State Warrior logo was on the front with Steph Curry's last name and number, 30, on the back. A gold rope crisscrossed around her slim body, across her abs, and connected to her gold bold thong. Her heels were like actual Egyptian shoes, gold straps laced up to her mid-thigh and matched her whole outfit. She was walking through water. Literally. Yes it's about an inch of water that went up to her ankles, but in high heels. While carrying a basketball. Nikita juggled the basketball in her hands from side to side while he made her way down toward us. With every step she took, water would splash up to at least her mid-thigh. As she past us Kyle slammed on my foot started to clap.

Steph Curry stood up giving her a standing ovation. Shit, I should have done that for Rose. All around the room a roar of clapping exploded. She kept walking towards the end of the stage without looking at any of us. She posed her pose, turned around and started walking back towards us. She looks directly at me and I didn't know what do. I continued to smile, clap and try to keep my cool. Her eyes shifted to Steph and he was losing his shit at this point. The second she was parallel of him she tossed her basketball in his direction. He barely caught it, dropped it down in his seat and continued to clap. Nikita kept walking, keeping her balance through the rushing water, and finally exited the stage at the end of the song. Steph sat back down with a huge smile on his face.

"I love this show," he says with excitement in his voice. No shit.

"Who wouldn't," Kyle answered in his direction.

From the front of the stage, the top layer came back on and the water disappeared. I look at the back of the stage and see the wording changed from Inspiration to _2016 Victoria's Secret Fashion Show._ The song _Applause_ by Lady Gaga boomed in the arena. Models start to come out from stage right and left forming two lines. Confetti is falling from the ceiling and the aroma in the room comes to life. The crowd around me stand up to clapping as the models come out for their bow. I see Rose come out in the middle of the line. She was wearing the same outfit from the _Inspiration_ theme but no wings. She makes her way towards the front of the stage where the other models are dancing around in place. The two lines of models come to an end and I realize Nikita isn't on the stage yet. Where is that girl?

 _I've overheard your theory_ _  
_ _"Nostalgia's for geeks"_ _  
_ _I guess sir, if you say so_ _  
_ _Some of us just like to read…_

The song is coming to an end and still no sign. The crowd is still cheering and clapping while the models, and Rose, continue to dance on the stage. To the side of me Kyle and Steph seem to start to get tired of the clapping. Rose looks over in my direction with a huge smile and I give her a sweet wave and thumbs up. What more can I do. Then all the sudden all the models turn towards the back of the stage to reveal Nikita making her way down the stage in one of those signature pink and white stripped robe.

"Why's she in a fucking robe?" Steph asks in my direction with disappointment. I don't know man, maybe she's fucking cold.

"Probably cause of the water," I say back. He nods with reasoning. The models kid of separate as Nikita makes her way down the stage. She glides through the dry surface and stands next to Rose and some other model. Both of the two girls had a smile or their face and Roe turns to Nikita's directions to give her a hug. Nikita opens up her arms and they embrace each other swinging from side to side. I think I'm going to be sick.

"Well this is awkward," Kyle reads my mind. Both of the girls let go of each other and the song finally comes to an end. The models turn around and start to make their way backstage. As Rose passes she waves towards me again and this time I don't respond. I'm just annoyed at this point. Nikita passes the three of us without looking in our direction. When the stage is finally cleared the lights in the room starts to become more brightening. "Ready to go back stage?"

"Dear God." I forgot about that. Hopefully I won't see to much of _her_ backstage of at the after party.

"You guys are going backstage? Lucky! I'll see you at the party in a couple hours then," Steph says as he taps the back of my shoulder and turns around to leave. I get up from my seat and stand up right next to Kyle.

"Alright let's go." I say as I readjust my tux, turn around and start walking through the crowd of people. Again, comments about the show go in and out of my ear.

"I think this year was the best!"

"That was very sexy."

"All the models looked great up there. The themes were spot on."

These kind of conversations could be over heard as I made my way toward the back of the stage with Kyle following me. There was another set of black doors with the lettering _BACK STAGE_ written on them. I take out my backstage pass from my right inner pocket of my tuxedo. The security guard just glances at it – knowing who I am, and opens the doors. I take a step inside and madness can be seen the second I do.


	3. Chapter 3

Shouting can be heard from every direction. I see models running around trying to get undressed and changed into their after party outfits. There were hair dressers and makeup artists attached to each models hip. I walk through the aisles for hair dressers chairs and mirrors and look for Rose. Kyle is still following behind me while eyeing up each model. I keep my eyes forward and try hard not to look at the half naked ladies all around me.

"Hey there you are," I can recognize that voice from a mile away. Rose runs towards me and jumps on top of me with her legs wrapping around me. She was in the signature Victoria's Secret pin stripped robe and bare foot. I spin her around in a circle and then let go of her. She plants her feet on the ground and plants a kiss on me. Her warm lips land on mine and I can tell she's smiling.

"Get a room," Kyle spills out from behind us. She releases the kiss and looks back at him.

"And did you enjoy the show?" She asks with heavy sarcasm and a smile.

"Yes, I did. A lot of surprises." He says with a smirk on his face and some hidden meaning that only he and I understand. With Rose's back to me now, I shake my head at him with widened eyes. Shut up. I look around me to see if I can spot Nikita really quickly. I see all the other models that were in the show changing and not a sight of her. I look back at Rose who had already turned around and was looking at me.

"You looked beautiful up there. So do you have to change into your after party outfit?" I ask to see if maybe Kyle and I can leave.

"Yeah. I'm going to change and then take some more backstage photos with the other models. Then all of the girls are going to take a limo and arrive to H2O together. So I'll meet you both there in about an hour." She says looking at Kyle and then me.

"Sounds great," I say quickly and give her a peck on the cheek. She turns around to leave and I'm standing there alone with Kyle. I watch her walk up to a two other models and pose in front of a photographer. I look back at Kyle and see him scanning the room. Nikita is nowhere to be found. Probably a good thing. We'll see her at the club anyway.

"Alright ready to go?" I ask Kyle in his direction breaking him from concentration.

"Yeah let's go. Do you want to stop somewhere for some food? We have an hour," He says as starts to walk back towards the double door to leave the backstage area. I follow behind him without answering and keeping my head down. I don't feel like being noticed, answering questions to reporters and taking more photos. We make it through the double doors and back into the lobby. There are still many of the other celebrates lingering around and socializing. As well as reports. Both of us try make our way out of the lobby as quickly as possible. We shake some hands and exchange hellos with others as per usual. Finally we make it to the exit doors of the building and I can see fans and other reports behind barricades waiting for people to leave. Kyle and I make it through the double doors and head to our car that is waiting for us at the end of the steps. We get in smoothly thanks to the security outside the building and start to head out. I look at my watch and notice it's already 9 o'clock.

"So do you want to get any food?" Kyle asks again as we sit quietly.

"I'm not really hungry man so it's up to you. I'm sure there's going to be food at the club anyway." I say in his direction. He just nods and we both don't say another word. Honestly, I just don't have an appetite after everything that happened tonight. And I'm sure that's not the last I'll see of her. God, I haven't seen her in years, I think to myself. I continue to look out the window like some singer in a sad music video. It's already dark out but all the lights in the buildings still light up the streets. I look back at my watch and it's already 9:30.

Kyle finally breaks the silence, "How you doing man?"

That's the nice thing about Kyle. We have been friends ever since middle school and can always tell when something is bothering one of us. We been there for each other through school, relationships, the NFL and much more.

I smile and respond, "Yeah, just caught by surprised this whole night. And I know that she's going to be there tonight as well, so hopefully she won't make a scene." I don't know why shoe would but you never know with girls.

"Who knows? I say we just show up, eat something and drink the night away." Oh Kyle, always having a game plan.

"Sounds good, but you know Rose probably has another plan thought out," I say under my breath. She always does. Either she just wants to drink and take tons of photos in front of the pops or just drink and hook up. Don't get me wrong, I'm fine with the hooking up part, put sometimes I wish she would tone down the spotlight part. She loves getting the attention.

I notice that we are parked on the opposite side of the street H2O. H2O is an exclusive club in downtown New York. Usually celebrities rent of the club for birthday parties or launching events. Kim Kardashian launched her perfume her just two weeks ago. Justin Bieber had his 21st birthday party here and so on. I've been here once before for an NFL draft party for one of our teammates that's from New York. Nick Smith was drafted to the Philadelphia Eagles as our wide receiver just last year. So the team threw him a huge party in his hometown. It's a 2 story building with a huge bar and dance floor on the first floor and then a couple of pool tables and private rooms on the second. There's also a balcony the hangs over and you can oversee the DJ and dance floor from the top. It's a fairly nice place. Again, I see reporters and fans waiting behind barricades across from the entrance doors. This is getting old now. I don't see any of the girls yet, only a couple of the audience members walking in.

"Let's just wait in here," I say, "I'll text Rose and see where they are." I get out my phone and sent her a text. Within seconds I got a response, "Like 10 minutes. We had to make sure everyone was in the car."

"Ten minutes." I say aloud and don't respond back. I sit back and close my eyes for a bit. An image of Rose pops into my mind of her from the show. She did look sexy. Memories of her walking down the stage from the _Firework_ theme continued to pop up. She made her way down the stage and posed. But as she turned around her facial structures changed. Her eyes turned from a hazel brown to a greenish-blue. Her slim nose transformed to a round button nose. She now had full rosy cheeks and she resembled someone that I knew. Not sexy anymore, but beautiful. Nikita.

"Oh shit," I yelled out as I opened my eyes and jolted up from my seat. My palms were sweaty and the back of my neck felt cold. I look down at my phone and see a text from Rose saying that she's two minutes away. I look up at Kyle and he's just staring at me.

"I'm not even going to ask," he says but I'm sure he already knows. This is a bad sign. I'm sure it's just because I'm still surprised by everything that happened tonight. I glance outside the car window and see a limo pull up right to the curb of H2O. Must be the girls. "Alright, let's go," Kyle says as he opened the car and gets out on his side. I open my door and step onto the street. Kyle walks around the car and him and I make our way across the street and over to the group of models that just stepped out of the limo.

I imminently notice Rose in her short white bodycon dress. It was strapless with a heart shaped outline on top and very tight fitting. "Hey beautiful," I say as she as she turns around and sees me. She wraps her arms around my neck and pulls me in for a kiss. Even with closed eyes I can tell camera flashes are going off. She pulls back and swings over to my right side posing in a typical couples pose. We stand still for a good minutes in front of the limo for the photographers as the other models make their way around us. I see in front of us some of the others go up to their boyfriends on the curve and pose like us. At least we aren't the only ones. "Want to head in side?" I whisper in her ear while pulling her in.

"Yeah, sure," she whispers back and I grab her by the hand and start to head in. I catch a glimpse of Kyle in front of us and he shakes his head at me. Where is she? Maybe she's not coming after all. Why though?

While Rose and I walk side by side along the sidewalk I sneak in, "So are all the models coming to this party or only the pretty ones?"

She chuckles and responds, "No all the models have to come. All of us are here now expect for Nikita." WHY though?

"Oh that's weird," I press.

"Yeah, something happened backstage. I don't know. She's a new model as well this year. We talked for a bit before our walks. She seemed really nice." Rose says coolly as we're about five feet from the club. What happened backstage? They talked? Did either one mention me? I think I'm going to be sick. Behind me I hear the fans and reporters get even louder within seconds. I look behind me expecting to LeBron James or Steph Curry step out of the car that just pulled up. It was a pitch black Rolls-Royce coupe, year 2016 I'm guessing. A tall buff male with blond hair in a black tuxedo steps out into the street, walks around the passenger's seat and opens the door. Through the crowd I can spot a long tan leg with black heels being expended out. And boom, there's Nikita. "Oh, there she is," Rose says towards me as we look in her direction. She's wearing a long sleeve all black romper. Although it's long sleeve, they're shorts. Her hair was up in a straight long pony tail and she wore stud earrings. Very plan but she made it look good. I quickly turn my head and see that Rose as well as the rest of the models and their boyfriends are staring at her as well.

"Well, let's go in," I say and tug Rose along. I need a drink. Rose follows behind me closely and as we walk in, we see that the club is already pretty packed. It's dark inside but the dance floor and bar lights brighten the room up. As you walk in, the long bar top that stretches along the whole wall is on the left. Some round tables are set up in the middle and to the right. When you make your way past the tables there is a huge dance floor with the DJ table on the right. Some people were sitting at tables and chatting with friends, some were at the bar taking shots, while others were on the dance floor dancing the night away. _Revolution_ by _Diplo_ was playing loudly and I was kind of in the mood to dance.

I look over to Rose, "What do you want to do?" I basically yelled at her because of the loud music.

"I want a shot," she yelled back like a typical girl. Every girl wants a shot or fruity drink. Both of us make our way through the crowd and over bar to order our drinks. As we wait for them we just look out at the crowd on the dance floor.

"Here you guys," the bartender yells out and then goes over to the next couple to take their order. Rose takes her shot and downs it right away and immediately asks for another one. So it's going to be one of those night. I take my Bud Lite and start to make a dent in it.

Kyle makes his way over when he spots us. "Hey Rose, you look lovely," he says and then gives me a weird look. Like he wants to talk. I look back at Rose and she's in the middle of downing her second shot.

"Thanks Kyle," she says once she caught her breath. She places her shot glass on counter top and continues, "Well I want to dance. You guys can just stand and chat but I'm going to have fun."

She looks back at me to see what I'm going to do. I need to talk to Kyle. "I'm going to finish my drink with Kyle and I'll be right behind you," I say and pull her in for a kiss. I can taste the tequila on her lips and it's awful. I let go and she runs off to her friends in the middle of the dance floor. At least she's having fun tonight.

"Dude," Kyle starts to speak as soon as she walks away.

I don't even let him finish his sentence because I know what it's about. "I know. Let's just drink and hang out here. Rose just took two shots so she'll be gone soon. We can just take her to the hotel and hang out in the lobby."

He just nods and looks out in the crowd. "She looks good," He lets out of his mouth and I'm not sure whether he's talking about Rose or Nikita. I notice he orders a beer as well and we just stand there.

"Well this is a very exciting Lenape High School Reunion," I hear that statement escape from someone's mouth behind me. I know who it is right away. There's only three people in this whole club that went to Lenape High School. I look too left of me and see Nikita walking up to us. I froze. "Well don't act too excited," she said as Kyle and I stood there with blank stares.

Kyle is finally the one to grow the balls out of the two of us, "Nice to see you again too. You looked nice tonight." That's all you're going to say, I think to myself. I can probably write a novel about all the shit that has happened tonight.

"Well thanks Kyle, I remember you being the gentlemen of the two," she says sarcastically while she turns to the bar. Nikita waved down the bar tender who was more than willing to take her order. "I'll take a Corona Light with a lemon." Oh, a girl who actually drinks beer in here.

"So how have you've been," I hear come out of my mouth. What an idiot. You see this girl for the first time after high school, in a Victoria's Secret Fashion Show, and that's what you ask her.

"I'm doing well, thank you." She responds after taking a sip of her beer. "I see you guys have been doing well for yourselves." At this point she took a seat at the bar and it looked like she was up for a real conversation.

"Yeah, it hasn't been too bad, "I respond with a shaky tremble in my voice as I slip into the chair next to her. "Our team doesn't look to bad this season so maybe we'll have a chance for playoff this year."

Both Kyle and Nikita let out a laugh. "Yeah right," she blurts out, "your team got screwed when Chip Kelly let go of Tebow." Well shit. She took another sip of her beer, "No offense." She sneaks in and shifts her chair towards the direction of the dance floor. Tim Tebow was our 3rd string quarter back and I beat him and our second string out for the starting position. So she thinks he's better than me? What?!

"Are you kidding me," I let out before even thinking it through, "That guy couldn't escape the pocket for his life. And he never knew when to rush the ball or to throw. He was awful."

She turns her head towards me in shock and by the look on Kyle's face I can tell I went a bit over board. "Well jeez, I didn't mean to hit a tender spot. I understand not everyone liked him. Just like not everyone likes you… as a quarter back." She says very coolly.

"Well shit," Kyle says with a laugh. "This is one hell of a reunion." He continues to laugh and take his last swig of beer. He sets the empty bottle down on the counter and the bartender comes within seconds. "I'll have another one. You good Mike?" Just fucking perfect. I just nod at him and he tells the bar tender, "Yeah, just one more." The bartender quickly hands him another Bud Lite and Kyle walks around me to stand in front of where Nikita and I were sitting. "So, other than the fact that you think our team is shit, with good reason, who's you're number one pick?"

Without missing a beat, "New York Giants," she lets out. Bloody hell. I'm out.

I let out a groan, "You've got to be kidding me, they suck."

"And yet, they are second in the division and you are…" She lets the sentence trail and waves her hand like _what._ She has a point. We are second to last in the division behind the Cowboys. But I don't say a word. I stare back at the dance floor and I get a glimpse of Rose. Damn, almost forgot about her. She sees that Kyle and I are making conversation with Nikita and starts to head our way. I bounce up from my chair immediately and stand over by Kyle. By the way Rose was stumbling and shoving her way through the crowd I can tell she had a few more shots while on the dance floor. Don't make a scene. Please don't make a scene.

"Hey guys," she slurs out, "I see you're getting comfortable with Nikita." She looks over at me with a pissed off look.

"Oh, we're just chatting about football," Nikita answers for all of us since Kyle and I have no idea what to say. Rose looks back at Nikita and just huffs.

"Oh, a girl who's a model and talks about football," Rose raises her voice, "What's not to like." Jealousy is a huge thing about Rose.

"Don't worry babe," I say quickly touching her shoulders, "we're just chatting."

"Well, I mean, who wouldn't want to chat with Nikita. Every guy in her would bone her up." Rose takes my beer out of my hands and takes a sip. At this point I froze because I don't know what to say. Anything I can will be used against me later on. I quickly look at Kyle for some help and he just shrugs.

"Rose," Nikita says calmly while reaching for her, well my, beer bottle on her hands, "I know Kyle and Mike from high school. It's not like they just walked up to me to move in on me like others." At this point Nikita had the beer and her hands and Rose's face relaxed. "I actually came up to them," she explained while handing me the beer bottle and sneaking a look. "I just wanted to catch up with some old friends. Don't worry, I'm no interested anyway." She pokes fun with a smile and Rose let's out a laugh.

"Oh, I'm so sorry. I didn't know you all went to high school together." Rose says defensively. What the hell is going on here? I just keep quiet.

"No worries, I really should get going anyway. Need to say hello to everyone else." Nikita states while standing up from her chair. She faces Kyle and me, "Well it was nice seeing you two again. Good luck with your season." Then she quickly leans into Kyle for a hug. He wraps his arms around her bar and rubs it. Nikita turns around and steps over to me. She opens her arms with a smile on her face. Her expression was like, "Okay let's get this show over with." I smile through gridded teeth, open my arms and quickly embrace her. Her tiny warm body presses up against me and my blood starts to rush all over me. She lets go and turns to Rose, "I'll see you soon okay!"

Rose looking more relaxed stepped towards Nikita and gave her a huge hug. "Oh yes! I'll see you at the game!" What effing game, I think to myself. Better not be mine. They let go and just like that Nikita starts to make her way towards the dance floor. She disappears into the darkness. What a great actress.

Rose looks back at me and says, "Sorry I freaked out. Everyone guy was hitting on her backstage and then I see the two of you talking to her," she blabs on with her head hung low. I feel bad for her.

"Hey, it's okay," I say and take her in for a side hug. "Why don't we head back to the hotel? You seem like you're getting _tired_." Let's just put you to rest.

"Yeah, that's probably a good idea." She says turning around to face the exit doors. I look down at my phone and realize it's already midnight anyway. Wow, Kyle and I must have been standing at the bar for a long time. I look over at Kyle who is just staring at the dance floor.

I walk up to him, "Hey man, Rose and I are going to get going. You coming or are you going to hang out here for a while."

"I'll join you guys. We can grab another drink in the hotel lobby and then call it a night." He responds and starts to head for the exit doors behind Rose. I look back over at the dance floor one more time to see if I can find Nikita and it was packed with people dancing, drinking and having a good time. We are such party poopers. I set my empty beer down on the bar and head for the exit. I get stopped along the way by Federer and James. I say my good nights and make it outside the building. At this point there are only a couple of reporters waiting outside. It is midnight after all.

"Did you have a good time?"

"Are you guys headed back to the hotel?"

"Can the two of you pose really quickly?"

The reporters shouted out to me and I just ignored them. I climb into the car and see Rose stretched out taking up all three seats in the back. She's knocked out cold. Kyle is sitting the in the passenger's seat next to our driver. I sit in the middle row and slam the door closed.

"Trump Hotel," I say aloud and we start to move. Silence fills the air. I just sit there thinking about everything that Nikita said. She handled that situation so coolly. With Kyle and I as well as Rose. I can't believe she like the Giants, like you've got to be kidding me. Looking out the window I just see a couple office lights on in some buildings. We made it to the Trump Hotel within 10 minutes due to the fact that it's midnight and no one is on the street.

The car pulls up to curb and I open the door. Kyle is already holding the door open for me to carry Rose in.

"Hey Rose," I say quietly. I get no response. Damn, how much did she drink? I scoop her up with my arms, shut the door with my leg and start walking into the hotel. Passing the lobby, there were some hotel guests at the bar watching reruns of all the pre-season football games were on today. I walk over to the elevator and Kyle already pressed the up button. Within seconds the doors slid open and we both stepped inside.

"Fifth floor," I say as Kyle pushes the "close door" button and then the five. We stand there in silence and finally the door opens to out floor. Luckily her room was near the elevator. We both walk in the hall and I stop at room number 5115.

"Hey man can you just," I start to say while handing him Rose. Kyle takes her I his arms with a loud huff. I open up my right jacket pocket and take out the key card. I slide it in the lock and turn the door handle. The door swings up and Kyle barges in. He walks over to the bed in the middle of the room and just plops her down. Like a bag of potatoes. I give him a dirty look. Come on dude.

"Sorry man, you can take care of the rest. I'll meet you at the bar." And with that he left the room. I walk over to the bed and take off Rose's heels. I set them at the side of the bed and start to pull down the sheets.

"What are you doing?" Rose slurs quietly. "Come to bed with me." She reaches up and grabs my arms.

"Not now Rose," I pull the sheets to the one side of the bed. "Time for bed." She pouts but makes her way under the sheets. I tuck her in like a child, say goodnight and walk out of the room leaving her to sleep. I got back into the elevator and pressed the ground level. I stand there, finally some quiet. What a night. Ding.

The elevator doors open and I step out into the lobby. I see Kyle at the bar downing another beer. To the left of me I hear a women on the phone, "Yeah, I'll be there soon. Give me fifteen minutes." I look over my shoulder and see Nikita making her way down the stairs and towards my direction. This ought to be good.


	4. Chapter 4

I just stand there in the lobby like a frozen statue. Where is she going? Its midnight and she just got back from the after party. She makes her way down her stairs and is walking in my direction to make it to the lobby doors.

"What are you up too?" I hear the words escape my mouth. She stops right in front of me in surprise.

"I'm going back to H2O," she responds as she puts her cell phone away into her purse. "It's too early in the night to call quits. And it's not my fault most of the girls don't know how to hold their liquor." Ouch, she's just full of insults tonight. She has a point though.

I let out a soft laugh, "Oh fun, Kyle and I were just going to drink at the bar here." I say looking over at the bar where Kyle is sitting. Kyle sees me talking to Nikita in the middle of the lobby, gets up from his chair and starts to make his way over.

"Hey guys," he says as he gets closer to us, "don't forget about me." He stands next to me, hands in his pockets, both of us waiting to see what Nikita has to say.

"Well, I guess if you guys would like to join me you can, or you could just sit here and drink a beer together like an old couple." She says with a laugh and sneaks a look at her watch. "My car is waiting outside for me, so I can meet you guys there." Well this is surprise. She's inviting us to join her for a night out?

"Why don't we just take our car," Kyle blurts out before she walks away, "you know, car pool, save the environment, blah blah." I look over at Kyle and then at Nikita.

She gives me a weird look and then answers, "Sure why not. This night can't get any weirder anyway." You got that right. I can hear our names being called by the guests from the bar. I guess they finally caught on to who the random group of people standing in the middle of the lobby were. Nikita noticed that as well and says, "Alright let's get out of here." She walks towards the exit doors and Kyle and I follow behind.

"Dude, what the hell is going on," I whisper to Kyle. Why are we even going? "I thought we were going to just sit at the bar."

"Come on man, it's early and let's see how this plays out." He whispers back as he holds the door open when Nikita pulled it. The three of us are standing outside the hotel in the cool brisk night.

Nikita's car was waiting at the curb. She walked up to the driver's seat, leaned over and explained, "Hey, I'm going with the guys, so you can get going. Thank you though." The driver nods, starts the engine and drives off. Our SUV pulls up, Kyle opens the door and we all climb in. Nikita is sitting with her back towards the driver, Kyle and I in the row facing her,

"Back to H2O," I yell over to Rick, our driver. I shut the door and we're back on the road again. We sit there in silence. I can feel tension in the air. I keep my eyes forward looking through the windshield. I try to sneak a couple looks over to Nikita and see that's she's just looking out her side window. The silence is broken by her phone ringing.

"I'll be there soon," she answers without saying hello. She presses end on her phone and lets out a loud exhale. Silence again. For what feels like hours, the car comes to a stop outside H2O again. But the scene is much different than before. Apparently someone must have tipped off the Kyle and I were joining Nikita. As soon as the car came to a halt, paparazzi circled the car.

"Well shit," I say under my breath. This little adventure will be in the news within hours.

"Let's go," Nikita says without hesitation and opens the side door. I guess she doesn't really care about the press. As soon as she opens the door camera flashes go off and screaming can be heard.

"It's Nikita, who is she with," shouted one reporter.

"Who else is in the car?"

"It's Kyle and Mike, are they here together. How do they know each other," another comment can be heard.

Wouldn't you like to know? I step out of the car next and some shoving and pushing started. Nikita was already halfway through the street. She kept her head low and her hands in front to keep from falling. I quickly follow behind her and can hear the car door shut. I assume Kyle is out. I catch up to Nikita and keep close. Flashes and screams kept on coming. Some fans started to reach out and touch the side of my arms. I just kept walking forward and kept my eyes open. I feel like body guard over here.

All the sudden, but what seems like slow motion, I can see Nikita getting yanked by her arm to the left of the crowd. She lets out a yell and stumbles to the side. I immediately jump in front and grab the guy's arms that got a hold of Nikita.

"Watch out. Let go!" Reporters screamed.

I grab it so hard that the gentlemen's hand lets go of Nikita but I'm still holding him by the wrist. Kyle comes up behind me, "Dude, let go," he says in my direction. I release the guy's wrist and he turns around and walks back into the crowd. I look over at Nikita who, from what I can tell, was startled.

"Walk in front of us," I shout over at Kyle. He shakes his head and starts walking towards the club. I go over to Nikita and wrap one arm around her waist and keep one arm out. Like a stiff arm for the paparazzi.

"Come on, let's get inside," I shout to her over the loud noise. I keep her close to my side and a little in front of me. She's in a sandwich between Kyle and me. I can still feel her shaking a bit while she walks. We finally make it to the doors and push through. The club is less crowed than before, thank god. Kyle starts to slow down and catches up to me behind Nikita.

"What the hell happened," Kyle asked. Nikita just kept walking to the bar and sat down in a high chair. The same bar tender from before comes over.

"I don't know. Someone just grabbed her. So I wanted to get them off," I whispered back and then shut up as we approached the bar. Nikita was just sitting there quietly sipping on her Corona Light. Kyle took a seat next to her and I just stood in front. The music was blaring and disco lights were flashing everywhere. I look back at the entrance and see some paparazzi were still hanging out outside the club. "At least the club is doing a good job of keeping them out." I say in both of their direction and look back at them.

"Well, that's one good thing coming out of tonight," Nikita says under her breath. She continues to sip on her beer and scan the crowd. A few people are dancing on the dance floor, some drinking at the bar, others sitting at tables and more upstairs. "Alright, well I didn't come back here to just sit," Nikita finally said aloud, "I'm going to go and dance." With that, she stood up and started to make her way to the middle of the floor.

"Wait," I yell out, "when do you want to meet at the car?" I'm not staying here all night. If Rose finds out I went back out, and with Nikita, I'll lose my head. Or worse, my balls.

She turns around with a smirk, "I'll find you two." She points her finger at the two of us, walks backwards, and disappears. I look at Kyle who somehow already has a drink in his hand. I take a seat next to him and wait for the bar tender to arrive. We both sit there in silence. The bar tender final shows up, "A Corona Lite please." Kyle looks in my direction with a raised eyebrow and I just shrug. Might as well see what all the craze it about. She can't stop drinking them. I take a sip and it tastes pretty good. I usually stick to a dark brew but I'll manage. I look over at the dance floor and Nikita is nowhere in sight. I keep sipping my beer. Where the hell did her go? I finish my beer and stand up.

"Where you going." Kyle shouts out. I don't know. But I need to walk around. I can't just sit here.

"I'm just going to wonder around. Check the place out." I say and head over to the DJ at the other end of the club. Kyle just smiles and stands up. We make our way over to the other side of the club and I keep my eyes peeled. Thanks goodness there's less people now. There's still are a couple photographers in the club but they are keeping their distance. A few camera flashes go off but nothing to be worried about. When we finally make it to the other side of the club, by the DJ, I realize that Nikita is nowhere in sight. Maybe upstairs? What would she be doing there?

"Let's go upstairs," Kyle yells in my direction knowing what I was thinking. I nod and start making my way to the stairs. From the corner of my eye I can see a couple of girls following us along with some paparazzi. I just ignore all of them and get to the second floor. To the right of me is another small dance floor with one couple grinding up against each other. Gross. Two pool tables are between the dance floor and a set of private rooms. With a sigh of relief, I spot Nikita by one of the pool tables with two other guys. Who the hell are they? Did she just meet them? I start making my way over.

"Hey," I say aloud but not yelling since the music isn't blaring on the second floor. With Kyle following me around like a lost puppy, I make my way over to the pool table and am standing next to Nikita. She turns her head and her eyes focus on mine. Well, barley focus. Looks like someone doesn't know how to handle her liquor after all. She lingers her stare from me to one of the guys that standing across the table.

"Hey!" She shouts and points to the guy, "This is Chris, him and I are going to be best friends." Oh boy. I look over at Chris and he just stands there not saying a word. He catches my glare and I just give him a death stare. You better not say or try anything.

"Hey man," he starts to say and makes his way around to me, "we just met, drank a couple beers and I think it's hitting her. That's all." Chris's friend walks over and within seconds I can tell he's trouble.

"We can take care of her, walk her back to her room," he explains and walks to the side of Nikita. He wraps his arms around her and she immediately wakes up. She shoved his hand way from her hip and walks over to Kyle and I.

"That's really nice of you guys, but I think I'll just sit down for a bit and I'll be good to go." She stands behind me and in front of Kyle and there's tension in this air. I look back at Chris and he knows it's time to go. I give him a nod and like that, he grabs his friend by the arm and start making their way to the stairs.

"Nice meeting you, have a good night guys," Chris yells over his shoulder and they both disappear. Good thing that's over. I turn back over to Nikita and she's just staring at the stairs. Maybe she should sit down.

"You wanna sit down, or just go back?" I ask her. She doesn't respond at all but instead, goes over to the couch and sits. She put her head between her hands and closes her eyes. I look over at Kyle and he just shakes his head toward her to follow her. We make our way over and take a seat. None of us say anything, sitting in silence. Well not silence, we can still hear the music. With her head in her hands I take this opportunity to examine her up close. Her hair was in loose curls that went down past her chest. The romper she's wearing is tight fighting and perfectly matches her high heels. She had a slight tan but nothing that looked like it was orange and fake. Her long longs were extended in front of the couch. God were they toned. Nikita lifts her head and I quickly move my eyes away from her. I look at the stairway and notice some camera flashes. Shit. Heads pop up from the railing and make their way to the second floor.

"There they are," one shouted.

"Can we get a picture? The three of you?" all of them were asking. We still sit there, none of us moving as the photographers get closer to us. Nikita stands up and motions us with her hands by her side to stand as well. Kyle and I get up and I feel Nikita put her hand on my upper back. A picture, really? Both of us step closer to her and put on a smile for the cameras. They loved it.

"Perfect."

"Stay there," one said.

"Over here, turn here," some started yelling. Nikita turns her way towards the stairs and starts to push Kyle for him to walk. He got the message and started to move. We make our way down the stairs and back to the dance floor. Cameras were still following us as we make our way through the floor and towards the exit. Kyle opens the door and Nikita walks out with me right behind her. Thankfully the car was already waiting for us by the curve with the door open. Nikita jumped in and we climbed in following her. The door slammed and the car started to roll away.

"Well, that could have gone worse," Nikita said aloud. Oh, for me, it's about to get much worse.


	5. Chapter 5

"How could you do this to me?" I hear Rose screaming while pounding on the door. I roll over in my bed and see that it's almost 9:30 in the morning. My head is throbbing and I can tell this is the start of a nasty hangover. Rose continues to bang on the door shouting louder and louder. I slump out of bed and slowly make my way over to the front door. Slumping over by the knees, I use my hands to keep me stable and guide myself through the living room. My hands hold me up by the couch, then by the kitchen island and finally by the front door. I take a deep breath, put my hand on the door handle and turn it.

"I mean, how could you? And with her? Of all people." Rose shouts as she breaks through the door as soon as I open it. She walks in, throwing her hands up in the air, giving me a killer look through her piercing eyes. I shut the door behind me and face her. She continues to scream and finally faces me. Anger, not even sadness is expressed her face. "What were you thinking?"

"Can you calm down," Kyle interrupts as he walks out of his room. His hand on the side of his head as he stumbles into the kitchen. He walks to the fridge and pulls out the orange juice. Kyle grabs a glass from the cabinet and starts to pour his drink. I stand there very still. What now. I look at Rose and she's staring at me. I turn towards Kyle and he's just drinking his juice. The fuck do I do now? He finishes his OJ and looks up. "It was my fault. I asked Nikita to join us." Silence filled the room.

"Is that true?" Rose breaks the silence and asks me.

I glance at Kyle and he gives me that "play along" look. I look back at Rose and reply, "Yeah, Kyle wanted to spend the night with her." Kyle pops up from his chair and places his glass in the sink. Walks over to Rose and places a hand on her shoulder.

"And she didn't even spend the night. What a waste of time. You did a great job last night by the way." He explained and took a seat on the couch and turned on the TV to CNN. I look back at Rose and she seems to be more relaxed.

"So you didn't go out with her? Oh, I'm so sorry, I knew you would never cheat on me." She jumps on top of me with her arms wide open. I embrace her, looking over her shoulder at Kyle. He looks back at me and I mouth "thank you". He nods and turns back to the TV. Rose lets go and plants me a big kiss. She lets go and begins to babble again.

"So, this is the last day in London. I really want to go window shopping with the girls and then maybe you and I can grab some dinner somewhere nice." She says with a little smirk and wink. Well I knew where she wants that to lead tonight.

"Of course sweetie. You go shopping and enjoy the day out with the girls. Here," I say as I turn around and head for me room. I reach into my pants pocket for my wallet. I grab my credit card and turn back around to the kitchen. "Buy yourself something really nice. You deserve it and I never meant to put you through that much stress from last night." I hand her the card which she quickly accepts. Of course. "Maybe treat the girls to lunch." I embrace her in a big hug and then let go. She has the sparkle in her eyes and a huge smile across her face.

"Okay, well I'll text you the restaurant and the time we can meet up for dinner." She turns around and heads for the door. "Love you, see you later," she yells behind her as she opens the door and shuts it behind her.

I let out a huge breath of air and walk over to Kyle. I slump down on the couch next to him and sit in silence. We watch CNN covering the political race back in the USA. "Thanks bro," I finally let out.

"No problem. She was about to rip your head out. But I do wish Nikita did make it back to our place. My place." He says in a douchebag way. God I hate him at times. He knows how much saying that bothers me. I let it go and we continue watching the news. The political race is so crazy over in the states that is makes news in London. It's only because we finally have the possibility of having a female president for the first time in history. Or it could be Donald Trump. God help us. I keep my political views to myself because if you say who you're voting for you may start a riot right in the middle of the street. Election Day is in a month so it's coming close. We sit there watching the news for the next few minutes until I hear my stomach gurgle.

"Do you want to do downstairs and grab some breakfast?" I ask as I get up and stretch. I make my way to my room and start to change.

"Yeah, sounds good to me. I'm starving," I hear Kyle answer from his room. I put on a pair of my grey Nike sweatpants with my number stitched on the side of my leg. I pair that with a fitted white V-neck t-shirt. Throwing my dirty clothes on the floor and putting on my sneakers, I step out and see that Kyle is wearing the same outfit. "Alright, let's go." I grab my phone off the kitchen counter and head out the door.

We walk quietly down the hall and make our way to the elevator. The doors open and we step inside. Pressing the 1st level button we feel the elevator start to move. _Ding_. The double doors open from the middle and bring us to the front lobby. We walk past the bar and into the dining hall. Rows of breakfast buffets were set up with not to many people in line. Either we are early or super late. I walk in front of Kyle and make my way to the scrambled eggs. Good they smell so good. Pancakes, bacon, sausage, omelets, the whole shebang. I go from one hot plate to the next taking one of everything. I get to the end of the buffet and to the coffee station. I look out at the seating area and see Kyle already sitting in front of the TV and scarfing down his food. I grab a mug and choose the French Roast coffee. Balancing a full plate of food in one hand and a cup of coffee in the other, I make my way over to Kyle. I take a seat and notice that her only got oatmeal and bacon. Must be really feeling the hangover. We sit in silence as other guests come in and out. Some whispering in excitement to each other, others barley being able to make it to the buffet due to all the drinking from last night.

"Well, I'm surprised you guys survived last night," I hear a familiar voice say behind me. I turn around to see Nikita standing there. She's wearing black sweatpants that are overly too big on her and a white fitted tank top that has the letters VS on it. Her hair is in a knotted messy bun with some strands hanging on the side of her face.

"Yeah, well we got into some trouble because of our trip last night," Kyle said as he bit into his bacon. I look at him and then back at Nikita. She has a warm smile on her face. Even though she looks like a mess, she looks like a hot mess. Around the corner I see Rose and some of the other models come into the dining room. I look back to Nikita who noticed that Rose has made her entrance.

"Well boy am I hungry, I better get going," she says quickly and quietly while walking backwards towards the buffet. Just as she leaves Rose appears with her friends.

"Hey, wanna join us?" I ask before she can fit a word in. her face lit up as she pulled back the chair and sat down. "Nothing to eat?"

"Nope, don't want to gain weight plus last night I had a lot to eat." She explains while looking up at me. Her friends pull up the chairs from the table behind us and sit down with us. Looking around it seems like they aren't going to be eating either. Models and their eating habits, I swear. "Nikita, joins us! Come on." What the hell is Rose doing?

"You, sure? You seems to be a bit crowded," Nikita explains after taking a sip of her coffee.

"No of course," one of the other girls chips in. Rose reaches for another chair behind her and pulls it up in the middle of her and another model.

"Sure, thanks." Nikita lets out. She places her plate of food down and gets comfortable in the chair. On her plate she choose pork sausage, scrambled eggs and a cup of fruit. Silence roamed over the table as she ate and all of us observing. At least she's eating.

"Wow, someone is hungry this morning," a model says in a salivating tone.

"Thanks for noticing Lily," Nikita says as she bites into her bacon. "What can I say, I like to eat." At least I finally know the name of another model, Lily. Chatter begins around the table and everyone goes into their own conversations. Kyle and I chat about last night's game. I steal a couple glances over in Nikita's direction and see that she continues to eat and listen silently.

Some time passes and I realize that girls are starting to get up and leave the table. Nikita finishes her breakfast and starts to get up. "Hey, all the girls are going shopping around downtown in an hour and then grabbing some lunch. It's on Dave," Rose says towards Nikita and then smiling at me. "Would you like to join?"

Nikita ponders on the thought for a bit and then replies, "Sure, why not." She finishes her cup of coffee and stands up. "I'll meet you in your room in a about a half hour," she says towards Rose.

"Sounds good to me," Rose responds. Nikita smiles are Rose and the other girl and then back at Kyle and I. She turns around and starts to walk towards the lobby. "Surprised she said yes," Rose says under her breath towards Lily.

"Why would you say that?" Kyle asks like he's reading my mind.

Rose turns away from Lily and answers, "I don't know, Nikita usually doesn't join in on the fun. Every time we invite her to a game or to go shopping she usually turns us down. She seems kind of quite."

Kyles smirks and says, "She didn't seem quiet last night." Rose raises an eyebrow and stares at him for a second. I keep my head down and smile. Rose walks over and plants a kiss on my check. "I'll see you later tonight."

"See you then," I say to her and she walks away. I look over at Kyle and exhale loudly. "Don't even say anything." I get up from the table set down my plate and mug on top of the trash can. I turn around and see Kyle standing. I walk over and we both head for the lobby. We make our way to the elevator and get up to our room. I open the door and crash on the couch. "Man, I can't wait to get back into the states and start to play football again. Just to forget about this whole situation."

Kyle walks into his room and yells out, "Yeah, I'm sure." He shuffles around in his room and walks out in a new outfit. One that is more appropriate for the streets of London. He's in a pair of tailored tan khakis and a navy blue polo, very frat boyish.

"What are you up to today," I ask him as he walks in to the kitchen.

"Not sure, maybe you and I can do our own window shopping. I'm in the mood to buy new shoes and maybe replace my laptop." Kyle reaches for a glass of water and sits down behind the island. "Want to join me?"

"I guess so, we can be like the girls," I say rolling my eyes. "Let me change really quick and then we can head out." I say and then get up and head into my room. I close the door behind me and open my dress drawer. I pick out my cuffed jeans, a new gray V-neck t-shirt and Timberlands. I get myself situated and walk out of the room. "Alright I'm set."

Kyle looks up from his phone and nods. He gets up from his chair and goes to the door. "I called of our car, it should be outside now." We got out to the hall and towards the elevator again. I hear a guest's door close behind me. Then I hear girly squeals and Kyle and I bolt for the stairs. We both ran down the stairs as fast as we could. We flew through the door and got into the lobby. We walk out of the hotel and hop in the car. "Victoria Palace Theater," Kyle says to Ned. The car started to drive away from the hotel and we were on our way. We were on the road for about ten minutes and we pull up to what looks like down town. Kyle jumps out of the car and I follow. Tons of stores and coffee shops surrounded us. As I look around the beautiful city, I spotted someone familiar. I just saw her this morning. Rose. And with Rose was her crowd models. Shit.


	6. Chapter 6

I franticly look over at Kyle, "Dude, keep this short. Say you have to go do something," I let out before Rose and her posy come up to us.

"Hey you two, what are you up to," she asks cutting me off. I look around and see Lily in the group along with some of the other girls that sat with us at breakfast. I scan the group quickly before answering and don't see the face that I am looking for. Where is she?

"Kyle and I are doing a little of our own window shopping. He's looking for shirts, shoes, and maybe even a new laptop." I answer in a low voice and look in Kyle's direction. Help out bro.

"Yeah, I actually have a haircut appointment in a half our so we have to get going," Kyle says in Rose's direction letting her know that we have to get going.

"Oh okay, well the girls and I are going to hit a couple more stores and then grab some lunch. I'll see you later tonight then." As Rose finishes her sentence, she plants a kiss on my check and all the models "Awe". She turns around to leave and the girls follow. I stand there on the sidewalk and watch her leave. Still thinking in the back of my head where Nikita is. Is she not feeling well from last night? Does she not want to hang out for Rose because of me?

"Well, I wonder why Nikita wasn't in the group," Kyle let out. Same here.

"No idea. So you're getting a haircut?" I say to quickly change the subject. "You just got one, you're going to cut your hair shorter?"

"No of course not, you told me to make it short so that seemed like a good excuse to bounce out. I can just comb my hair back and no one will know the difference." Good point.

I let out a sigh, "Well, want to hit the Apple store and get a new laptop?" Kyle nods his head and starts strolling down the side walk. I follow him. We pass some local coffee shops, some bars, and big name brand stores and so on. Apple is at the end of the street right before the turn. We make our way up to the entrance and notice right away that the store isn't as busy as it is in America. There is still a lot of workers in the store but defiantly not as many shoppers.

A guy about our age walked right up to us. "Hello, can I help you gentleman out with anything? Something you are looking in particular?" He looks in both of our directions.

"Yes, my laptop is running slow so I would like to buy a new one," Kyle explains.

The customer services rep looks at him with a blank stare and answers, "Well do you have you laptop with you? My team and I can look at it and see if you can fix it for you."

"I'm visiting from out of the country and would just like to pick up a new one." Kyle answers and starts to walk to the table full of MacBook Pro.

"Not a problem, we just came out with a new version. Right over here," he said pointing to a gold thin MacBook, "starting at $1,300, this laptop is thinner, has improved graphics performance, faster flash storage, and up to 10 hours of battery life."

Kyle picks up the MacBook Pro and plays around with the keyboard for a bit. He puts down the laptop, looks over the guy and says, "Looks good to me, I'll take it."

The employer looks in a bit of a shock. "Sounds great, let me go to the back and grab one for you. I can ring you up at the checkout." Kyle walks over to the register and I stay behind glancing at the phones. That's one problem with Kyle, he'll spend money anywhere on anything. Sure, we have $10 million dollar contracts with the NFL a year but still. I walk up and down the rows and several times am approached by an employee for help. I just say no thank you and that I am waiting for a friend. They nod and walk away.

A couple minutes go by and Kyle comes up beside me with his Apple Inc. bag in his hands. "Ready to go?" I ask and we head for the door. Stepping out of the store and to the sidewalk again, a gust of wind goes by. I glance at my watch and it's a bit passed 1 o'clock. The streets are filled with people by now shopping, taking a stroll, or eating brunch. "I'm getting hungry, want to grab something?"

"Yeah, I'm getting hungry too." Kyle says aloud and we both make our way down the street. "What are you in the mood for?"

"Anything is fine with me." I say at some pubs and restaurants around us. I spot a little pub which's name I cannot pronounce. But it had a picture of a beer and some hoagies drawn on a chalk board posted outside the pub. I nudge Kyle and then point to the pub and he nods. We walk in and are greeted by a young girl. She looks to be in high school and trying to get by.

"Hello, just two today?" She asks and looks down on her seating chart.

"Yes, but can we a get a seat outside? If that's alright." I say to her before she reaches down behind her podium and gets out the menus.

"Not a problem," she responds as she takes another glance at her seating chart and says "follow me." We follow her past the bar and sit down at a table with two chairs near a railing. "The waiter will be right with you."

We take our seats and open up our menus. I look at the menus and it gives me an Applebee's kind of feeling. Which doesn't bother me, beer and wings. A waiter comes up to use and we order the same thing, hot boneless wings and a Heineken beer. We sit in silence for a bit and wait for our food to arrive. There was an outside bar by where we sat, so we were able to watch ESPN. At the moment the Cleveland Bears were playing the New York Jets. It didn't really matter to me who won this game because neither were in our division, but let's be honest, the Bears are going to lose.

A waiter comes up to our table, "What can I get for you guys?"

"Can I just get a dozen of hot wings and a Miller Lite man," I ask and then hand him the menu.

"Ranch or blue cheese," the waiter askes right away.

"Ranch," I reply and then turn my focus to my phone. There was a notification on my phone from Instagram. Someone tagged me in something. Probably Rose from last night at the show or after party. I open the app up to see the post and almost drop my phone on the table. It was from Nikita's account. Or at least I think it is. I have never seen her account before. _NikitaVS_ Yeah, that's her. The picture is the one from last night of Kyle and I sitting on the couch. The caption read, "Memorial High School Reunion" Well shit. Playing that game.

"Dude what is it?" I can hear Kyle asking me after I haven't answered him the first time. I hand him my phone and wait for a response. "Well, she's got spunk, doesn't she?"

"I guess so, she tagged you in it too," I say while reaching for my phone. I stare at the picture again. Her sitting there in the middle of us, both arms around Kyle and I, legs crossed, big smile on her face, made me feel warm inside. I look down at the number of "likes" and notice right away that _Lily_Everstein_ liked the photo. Crap. All of the models are going to see this photo, including Rose. "Shit," I say aloud, "this is going to cause a problem."

"Don't worry bro, she thinks that I was trying to hit on her," Kyle says under his breath while looking at the television screen. I double tap that photo and a red heart pops on top of the picture and then disappears. I press the home key on my phone and then shut it off. We both sit there for a while until our food comes.

"A dozen wings," the waiter says and places the plate in front of me. "And a deluxe burger." He places the burger in front of Kyle and then places our beer on the table. "Can I get you guys anything else?"

"No, we're good for now, thank you," I respond and then he leaves. I dig right in to my wings. As I eat wing after wing, I realize how hungry I truly was. The hot sauce and thick breading made me think like I was back in the States. I continue dunking my wings in the ranch, taking sips of my beer and thinking about the Instagram post. Why did she do that? Although I must admit, it was a great photo. Of all three of us, and her of course. I look at Kyle's plate and his burger is already gone. "How was it?"

"Delicious," he answers and continues to finish his fries. Within fifteen minutes, both of us finish our meals and are watching the game. Jets are ahead, shocker.

"Any dessert or just the check?" The waiter pops up out of nowhere and starts to clear off the table.

"I'm okay," responding and look over at Kyle. He nods, "Just the check then." The waiter reaches into his apron and pulls out the bill. He lays it in the middle of the table and then excuse himself.

I look at the bill and then at Kyle, "I covered your ass today. Plus I just spent a shit ton on a new laptop," he says with a laugh. Of course. I reach over for the bill and see that it's only $39.78. Not horrible. I put down a fifty and get up.

"Let's get going," I say aloud, push in my chair and start to head out. Kyle follows and we leave through the gated fence around the restaurant. We roam around the streets a little more. Stop at a couple of stores pick up a few things, and call for our ride back to the hotel. We both stand by a light post as we wait. Kyle I holding a couple of bags full of shirts, jeans, shoes and his laptop. I just picked up two shirts from Giorgio Armani and wasn't too thrilled with the prices. But this is London after all. Our ride shows up within minutes and we head back to our room. I glance at my phone and notice the time a quarter past 5. We arrive to the hotel and the lobby is packed. Mostly with girls and other guests that are staying there. We make our way through only to be stopped a couple of times for photos. As we get into the elevator, screaming and shouting can be heard. We close the doors as fast as possible and go up. Ding. The doors open on the third floor and we head for our room. I unlock the door and we walk in.

"So what are you going to be up to besides dinner tonight?" Kyle asks as he shuts the door behind him and enters the common area.

I sit down on the couch, "Nothing really, I'm sure Rose will want to spend the whole night together." As I say this, Kyle nods his head and goes into his room with his bags. He sets them down and reenters into the kitchen.

"Alright, so I'll probably order take out then." I hear some shuffling in the fridge and he reappears in the common area with OJ. Kyle plops down beside me and takes out his cell phone. He looks at it for a moment before saying, "Damn, we all look good here." I assume he is referring to the "Memorial High School Reunion". I reach for his phone and take it out of his hands. I stare at the photo again and he wasn't lying. We looked like something out of a GQ article, although we all know we weren't feeling like it. I hand him back his phone and stand up.

"I'm going to shower and get ready for tonight." I walk into my room, take off my shirt, shoes, and socks and throw them on the floor. I walk in the bathroom and close the door. I take my phone out of my pocket and see a notification for a text. I unlock my phone and of course, Rose. _Are we still on for tonight?_ I text back saying that I'm getting ready now and will get her from her room around 6. I have about another thousands of notifications on the Instagram photo with peoples/fans comments. Most of them are positive. Some asking questions about high school, others about relationship statues. I shut the phone off and start to run the water. Once the water was hot enough I got in and you know, took a shower. It felt calming and cleansing. I don't spend too much time since I only have about a half hour to get ready. I step out of the bathroom in a towel and see the Kyle is still watching TV and glued to his cellphone. In my room I dry off and put on a pair of ripped jeans, a red V-neck, and my Timberlands. I towel dry my hair and leave it be. I grab my watch and see that I have about fifteen minutes left. I out the watch on and head out of my room. "Anything interesting going on?" I call out to Kyle while getting a glass of water.

"Nope, but a lot more people think Nikita and I make a better looking couple than you and her." He snickers and looks back at me. Hilarious. I roll my eyes and reword my question.

"Anything interesting happening in the US news?"

"Yeah, yeah, you and your politics. Nothing really, Trump keeps calling Hillary a lair, Hillary keeps calling him a ticking time bomb. Politics." He sounded unamused. I finish my glass of water and rinse it out.

"Alright, well I'm leaving for the night. I'll text you if anything changes," I say in his direction and walk towards the door.

"Have fun," I hear him say before classing the door behind me and entering the hall. I make my way towards the stairway and get to the second floor. Rose is staying in room 213 on the second floor along with all the other models. I open the door to the second floor of the hotel and see a couple of them roaming around. Her room happened to be in the middle of the hall. I pass the girls and knock on the door. Before Rose opens the door I can hear a couple of other voices in the room.

"One second," I hear Rose yell out from her room, but the door opens. Damn it.

"She'll be ready in a minute," Nikita says as she opens the door to the room. Are they roommates? No. Rose would have told me all about it if they were. Nikita is holding a glass of what seems to be white wine. She turns back around into the room and walks back to a couple of other girls that are watching TV. I take a step in the room.

"Thanks," I reply and shut the door. Nikita doesn't say another word and just takes a seat on the couch. On the TV is a tennis match displayed on the channel ESPN2. Who the hell watches tennis? I just there in the hallway for a while feeling awkward.

"Oh come on," Nikita yells out at the TV, "you're better than that Roger." The other girls chime in about Roger Federer and his opponent Novak Djokovic. Seriously, tennis.

"Is Rose in her room?" I finally ask. Maybe I can go in her room.

As Nikita turns around to answer me, "Right here," Rose says stepping out of her room. Thank God. Rose is wearing an ivy green romper with long sleeves. Her hair is up in a ponytail with large hoop earrings.

"You look gorgeous," I say and give her a kiss on the cheek. "Ready to go?"

"Yup." She grabs her bag off the kitchen counter and yells out to the girls, "Have fun, let me know who wins." The girls says bye and wave without looking behind them. As we both make out way out the door I can hear Nikita scream, "Damn it Roger."


	7. Chapter 7

"What was going on in there?" I ask as we walk up to the elevator. I press the down arrow and wait for an answer.

"Oh some of the girls came over to watch the Australian Open. Lily and Nikita are the ones that seem most interested." Rose explains as she steps into the elevator and presses the G button. I step up next to her and leave it at that. The elevator brings us down to the ground floor and we exit. Rose and I make our way to the restaurant that's inside the hotel. I tell that hostess our name and he leads us to our table that close to the back and to the right of the bar.

"So how was your girl's day out?" I ask after both of us have had some time to look at the menu.

"It was really nice. I bought a couple of things here and there," Nikita responds and then immediately takes a sip of water. We stay silent again, pretending to look at the menus. The waiter comes over to us and we order our food. Rose seems to be hungry and on a mission because she ordered almost the most expensive thing on the menu. The 5th Avenue Filet Mignon for $25.00 which includes center cut prime beef simply grilled with pommes anna, sauteed spinach and sauce demi glace. Not that I mind, but she doesn't seem to be sending a message. I order the Thai Coconut Red Curry Chicken which is described as boneless chicken thighs simmered with ginger, garlic, and lemongrass and served with peppers, onions and white rice. Sounds delicious. We both sit in silence, Rose checking her phone every so often.

Unable to stand the silence anymore, "So, are you ready to go back home?"

She looks up from her phone and nods. "Yes, I'm ready. The Oscars are coming up you know."

Right. I have been invited due to the fact that I am a high profiled athlete. Given the fact that Rose is my current girlfriend, she's my plus one. I didn't even ask her to come, it's just anticipated. It's about three weeks away and it slipped my mind to be honest. And she is more than excited to go. So am I.

"I am aware, I think it's going to be a great night." I say with a smile. "Have you been thinking a lot about it?"

"Yes," she replies, "I have a dress fitting the day after tomorrow in New York. I'm going to be staying at The Plaza."

"Oh. Do you want me to go with you, or keep it a surprise?" I ask secretly hoping that she says no.

"No way, I want it to be a surprise." Thank goodness. And with that our waiter comes with our food. I thank him and we both dive into our dinner. We sit their quietly munching and people watching. I notice a lot of other couples are starting to come in. Luckily the security at the restaurant is top notch so we weren't bothered with fans. A few minutes pass by and out of the corner of my eye a catch a familiar face. Nikita's driver. She walks through the lobby and into the elevator. Is she going somewhere tonight? He's just the driver, shouldn't he be waiting by the car? Maybe they have a thing going on. The elevator doors open, he steps in, and then close.

The waiter interrupts my train of thought, "Can I get you any dissert? Wine?"

I shift my focus on Rose and she shakes her head.

"No I think we are done for the night." The waiter turns around and we are let alone once again.

"So," Rose lets out a heavy sigh, "What are you up for tonight?" I can feel her leg stretch out from underneath the table and start to rub the insides of my thigh. Not in the mood.

"Um, to be honest, I think my lunch from today isn't agreeing with me. Do you think we can maybe take a raincheck? I didn't want to cancel plans for dinner tonight though because I wanted to see you." I try to word as nicely as possible to get myself off the hook.

The expression on her faces turns soft and calm, "Oh, of course." She retracts her foot from under the table but reaches her hand to touch mine over the table. "Why don't you head to your room then and hopefully you'll feel better by tomorrow." No I feel bad.

"Oh thanks hunny, let me wait for the check and at least walk you to your room." She nods with a smile and we wait for our check. The waiter finally arrives with the check and I pay in cash. We leave our table and head to the second floor. As we walk down the hall Rose's door to her room open and Nikita steps out with her driver. Lily joins them as well. They continue to walk down the hall and stop to chat with us.

"Oh, how was dinner?" Lily asks aloud looking at me and then over to Rose.

"It was nice, well needed." Rose responds while she wraps an arm around me. "Where are you headed to?"

"We were thinking the movies in the center of town." Nikita says in my direction. "What about you guys?"

"Well I'm not…" I started to say but Rose interrupted.

"My poor baby over here isn't feeling so good, so I'm letting him off the hook and letting him rest." She rubs my back and we both smile.

"Yeah," Nikita eyes me and then continues to Rose, "I'm sure all the alcohol and loud music is getting to your head or stomach." She says with a smirk and then starts to make her way past us.

"Feel better," Lily lets out and follows her. Nikita's driver gives us a nod and follows his boss. They hop on the elevator and disappear. I look back at Rose and just shake my head. We walk over to her room, I give her a quick kiss goodbye and she shuts the door. I take the stairs one more level up to get to my room. I open the door and am greeted by Kyle cooking in the kitchen.

"Oh, that was quick," He says looking up from the stove.

"Yeah, we just had dinner. I wasn't in the mood for anything." I say as I lay the key card on the kitchen island.

"Wasn't in the mood or did a certain someone ruin in it for you?" He asks with a smirk as if knowing that my evening let alone whole trip wasn't going as planned.

"I'm sure you know the answer to that. What are you cooking anyway?" I ask as I take a whiff of air. I can smell peppers and onions being sautéed. I walk over and look in the pan and was right along with mushrooms and tomatoes.

"Some chicken veggie quesadilla. Want some?" He ask as he continues to stir the pot. I can see on the counter the tortillas wraps, shredded mozzarella, and shredded cheddar. Quesadillas are my weakness but I am just to full at the moment.

"No thanks. Smells great though." I respond walking into my room and talking off my shoes. I change quickly into joggers and an oversized shirt. I throw on a pair Nike soaks and get back into the kitchen. Kyle finished cooking his quesadilla and is eating on at the kitchen table.

Throughout the night we catching up on some more football and just chill. The night ends in a blur and the last thing I remember is hitting the soft and comfy bed.

I wake up to the sound of my alarm on my phone. I quickly turn is off and see that it's eight AM. My flight leaves for New York at noon. But everyone knows that you have to get to the airport earlier. I roll out of bed and get dressed out of my joggers and t-shirt and into jeans and a polo. I walk into the bathroom, wash my eyes, brush my teeth and comb back my mess of a hair. I can hear Kyle waking up as well and making a rustle in his room. He comes out of his room and does the same routine that I just did.

"Do you want to make breakfast here or grab it at the airport, or downstairs?" I ask him when he finally finishes up.

"I think I'm just going to grab something at the airport." He responds and clicks on the TV. Ah… CNN. So that's how we finished our night. "I'm going to start packing up now, this way we can leave earlier and eat something."

"Sounds good to me," I respond and head to my room. I make my bed and start to gather my clothes. I grab all my shirts, jeans, and what not out of my drawer, fold them neatly and place them in my bulky black handbag suitcase. I'm a pretty light traveler so packing didn't take much time. I can't say the same thing for someone like Rose. Takes her hours.

Both Kyle and I gather our belongings in the living room and by that time it's already nine thirty. We do our last check in the bathroom, kitchen and living and finally head out the door.

"I called for our ride a while ago so we should be good to go," Kyle says as he presses the elevator button. Rose, Lily and all of the other girls don't have to go to the airport because Victoria's Secret has their own plane that the girls travel on for their big annual show. So hopefully the airport won't be too crazy.

We get down to the lobby and I see a couple of other celebrities that I assume are headed to the airport too. I can recognize Steph Curry and Roger Federer. Both of them were recognized in the show. All of us spot each other and nod. Kyle and I head out of the hotel and get into our car.

Our ride to the airport went smoothly and quickly. We were there within ten minutes. I step out of the car and grab my bag. By standards were starting to recognize Kyle and I so I tell Kyle to hurry up and we enter the airport. We get passed security swiftly and head to a restaurant for breakfast. We sit at the diner bar and order.

"I'll have the veggie omelet and a cup of coffee." I ask the waiter and wait for Kyle to order. He get the "Big-To-Do" which includes French toast, two eggs, and bacon. Our food comes quickly, due to the fact we were the only people there, and we inhale it as fast as if came to our table.

We pay our bill and head to Gate 11A to New York JFK International airport. I check my watch and see that it's a quarter to twelve. If the schedule goes as planned, only a little bit until I board the plane and am back in New York and back to what my life used to be. Football and Rose.


	8. Chapter 8

Several weeks have passed by and tonight is the night of the Oscars. The weeks that have passed by have been nothing but normal. I arrived back to NYC after the fashion show and my life went back to how it used to back. Without Nikita. With Rose, football, Kyle, and the star life. I've had practice basically everyday and I have really enjoyed them. The team is looking much better than last season and the flow of the game will show next weekend at our pre-season opener again the New York Giants. Passes are being thrown better by me, and more of the guys on the team are catching them. Defensive line is looking great, so I am actually able to play my position.

Rose has been doing her own things recently. She's had a couple of small shows in NYC and Miami that's kept her busy. I went to one in NYC where she modeled Michael Kors, but wasn't able to show up to the others. She understood. We have been only been able to see each other a couple of times due to our busy schedules. When we did see each other, we went out to dinner and usually ended up at one of our houses. It wasn't too bad of a deal, not to sound cold hearted.

We are both in L.A. right now in our hotel room getting ready for the red carpet. I look at my reflection in the mirror and I look almost the same as I did at the fashion show. A fitted black tuxedo, white button down shirt, and a black bow tie. My shoes are a slick black and tied. My hair has grown out a little bit more, but still tamed. Rose is in the bathroom changing into her gown right now. I haven't seen it yet, but from what she has told me so far is that it's red and tight fitting. Fitting for her.

We are staying at a Marriot Hotel, fifth level, literally five minutes away from the theater. We could practically walk to the red carpet, but of course we have to take a car and make out big entrance, as Rose puts it. We are staying in a regular room this time with a king size bed and one bathroom. They are other celebrates that are staying in this hotel, I saw some of them in the lobby during check in.

"Are you ready to see?" I hear Rose yell out of the bathroom. She steps out of the bathroom and she looks beautiful. I was shaken up a bit. She was wearing a long red strapless gown that hugged all the right places. There was a pattern of large waves that formed a short train. The color of the dress really made her dark olive tan and blond hair really stand out.

"Wow," I say aloud as I reach for her hand. I give her a little squeeze, "You look radiant."

She smiles and I plant a small gentle kiss on her cheek.

"Well, don't ruin my make-up," she says sheepishly. She then kisses me on the lips and I can feel her tremble. Either she is scared, turn on, or cold. Or all three. I look back up at her face and she really does look beautiful. "You don't clean up badly yourself."

I release her and look down at my watch. We need to be leaving soon.

"We have to get going soon." I grab my jacket off the bed. "The car is waiting for us downstairs." I throw my jacket on and Rose goes back into the bathroom and grabs her little jacket. We both head out the door and grab the elevator to go down to the lobby. We head straight to the car and we were off to the red carpet.

Within ten minutes we arrived to the red carpet and were waiting in the car to step out. We have to wait in line until our car makes its way to the front of the carpet.

"We are almost to the front," I say towards Rose. I pat myself down and make sure everything is intact. "Ready?"

"Of course," she answers and plasters a smile on her face. The car door opens and a wave of camera flashes come over me. Yelling, screaming, reaching, and flashing came from every direction. But at least this was more organized and people weren't crowding you. I turn back around and face Rose. I reach out for her hand and she takes it gracefully. Rose steps out of the car and I place my arm around her hip. We start to walk down the long carpet and straight towards the theater.

While walking on the carpet we have to stop at certain locations and talk to interviews and pose for pictures. There are security guards that are standing at the locations and that indicates where we stop and interact with the crowd. There are about four to five spots along the carpet. We both make our way over to the first spot. Both of us stand there for a bit smiling, laughing, and planting a kiss on her cheek.

"How are you two doing?"

"How's the season going to look like?"

"Who are you most excited to see tonight?"

"Well I think we are both doing quite well. We are very grateful to have been invited tonight and are very excited to see who wins. Good luck to all nominees tonight." I yell out towards the crowds of reporters.

"Well, I really hope that Leonardo DiCapiro wins," Rose starts to say after me, "I mean, he should be up five now." She says with a smile and starts to walk forward towards the other reporters.

As we continue to roll through the motion of answering questions, smiling, and posing all of it becomes a blur. Most of the questions were the same from interview to interview. Talking about my football season, about who we are going to see, so forth and so on. We finally make it past the last stop and we start to make our way into the theater. There are many actor and actress all around me. Matt Damon, Jennifer Lawrence, Scarlett Johansson, Robert Downey Jr. and many more. I did get a little more than excited to see Scarlet, I mean, if Rose can go goggly eyes for Leo then I can for an actress as well.

The nice thing about being in the theater is that most of the press is out of the way. There are a couple but mostly for TV broadcast and not actually commentators or hosts. We make our way to the lobby and there are is red and gold everywhere. The bars and tables are made out of gold countertop and red security ropes circled the bar. It gave that expensive feel to eat. Chandeliers hang from the ceiling and there was excitement as well as nervousness floating in the air.

"Would you like a drink?" I ask in Rose's direction and eye the bar. Not to many people there at the moment so now is the perfect time to get a drink or too.

"Sure, Malibu breeze please," she replies, "I think I see Anne Hathaway over there, I'm going to go say hello," and with that she is off. I head over to the bar and flag a bartender down. I order Rose's drink and beer for me. As I stand waiting there for my drink I can feel a figure slide up beside me. I look over and see that it's Nick Viall, the most recent bachelor on the reality show The Bachelor. The show is airing right now and Nick is halfway through the girls. Only reason I know this is because Rose watched this show like it's her religion. Especially when the Bachelorette is on cause that when at least thirty hot guys are on the screen. Why is he even here, I think to myself, he's not even an actor or that famous. But then again, neither am I.

"Can I get two Bud Lite's my man," he yells in the bar tenders direction. The bar tender nods and continues with my order. "Hey David, how the team going?"

That's the funny thing about being well known, everyone knows your name and you forget that sometimes. I turn in his direction and reply, "Hey not bad. I feel like we are finally getting it together. How are you doing? Get engaged?"

He lets out a laugh, "Ah you know I can't say, contracts and all that. But I am happy, finally after three times trying." Oh yeah, I forgot that he's been on the show twice already and got shut down. That must have been hard. I don't know how he agreed to do it again, that would be embarrassing for me. But I guess it finally worked out for him and he's happy. "But it's good to hear that the team is getting its shit together. Hopefully move up in the rankings a bit."

"Yeah we will see, I hope so as well." The bartender finally hands me my drinks as well as the two beers to Nick. I wonder who here is with or how he got invited. "So, if you're engaged or not engaged, who are you here with?" I ask.

"Oh, I'm actually presenting an award, but I came by myself." He responds and I point to the second beer in his hand like he's hiding something. "Oh this is for someone else that I just met. I actually can't remember her name," he says in a whisper. What a dumb ass. No wonder I heard that some girls really hate him. Can't even remember a girl's name that he is getting a beer for within ten seconds. He looks out into the sea of people to hopefully spot the girl. I look to where he is looking but I don't see anyone that is alone.

"Well I better get going, nice talking to you and good luck with the season," he says after he looks around and found the person he is presumably looking for.

"Nice talking to you, and good luck tonight," I say and we both part ways. After doing a little bit of searching myself, I found Rose talking with Matt Damon and his wife. While I made my way across the lobby I was stopped a couple of times, said my hello, good lucks, and goodbyes.

"Here you are sweet-heart," I say and hand her her drink. She takes it and says thank you. Rose finishes up her conversations with the couple and finally faces me.

"I think people are about to start going in." She says and then reaches for my hand.

I accept it and say, "Well, let's find our seats." We take the last sips of our drinks and as we walk towards the entrance we set our empty glasses on a top table. We aren't permitted to have drinks inside the theater but we are able to step outside and grab on during commercial breaks. Once inside the theater, we have an usher come over to us.

"Do you need any help finding your seats? You are in section 103 row 2." He informs us while pointing to the right side of the aisle.

"I think we can find it from here," I tell him and nod my head. He smiles and then goes to the couple behind us. I start to lead Rose to our seats. Wow Row 2 in the first section, those are amazing seats. Wonder why we got to be so close. As we reach our seats I see that we are going to be next to Angelina Jolie and Brad Pitt, the power couple. I think Brad is nominated for something but I'm not too sure.

"Hey how are you guy?" I ask as we reach out seats. I notice that we have the aisle seats. I let Rose sit next to Angie.

"Not too bad. Nice to meet you two," Angie says and gives a quick warm hug to Rose. She is really one to the sweetest starts in Hollywood. I see Brad reach over to shake my hand and I do.

"So you nervous for tonight?" I ask.

"Not really, I'm just excited to be here. It's always a fun time. Plus who doesn't love Ellen Degeneres? She'll make a great host." He says with a smile and then reclines back into his seat.

"Well, best of luck tonight," I say and take my seat. Other celebrities are filling in. Most of them are sitting in the middle section and in the first three rows. There is chatter all around the room, all filled with excitement. I look in front of me and see that Emma Stone and Andrew Garfiled are taking a seat.

All the sudden an announcer comes over the loud speaker, "Attention ladies and gentleman, please take your seats, the show is going to begin in five minutes."

People are around me started to take their seats and the noise started to lower. Within exact five minutes the lights in the room started to dim down. I look around and see almost everyone is in their seats.

The announcer comes back to the overhead, "Please welcome your host, Ellen Degeneres." Everyone started to applaud and with that Ellen came on the stage. The next hour or hour and a half goes by a blur. Ellen does her monologue and it was hilarious. A couple of awards have been presented. We get to what I think is halfway through the show and we are about to see a musical performer.

At the moment, Hilary Swank is on the stage, "… and it is with my pleasure to introduce my friend, Lady Gaga to the stage." People started to clap and Lady Gaga appeared. She is in the middle of singing her new single, "A Million Reasons,"

 _I bow down to pray_

 _I try to make the worse seem better_

 _Lord, show me the way_

 _To cut through all his worn out leather_

 _I've got a hundred million reasons to walk away_

 _But baby, I just need one good one to stay_

On stage Lady Gaga is playing the piano and the camera is fixated on her. Everyone around me and in the audience were in awe. The camera would pan in and out from the audience and Lady Gaga. On the screen we would see the reactions of some celebrities, Alexander Skarsgard, Kate Moss, and Sofia Vergara.

 _Head stuck in a cycle, I look off and I stare_

 _It's like that I've stopped breathing, but completely aware_

 _'_ _Cause you've given me a million reasons_

 _Give me a million reasons_

 _Giving me a million reasons_

 _About a million reasons_

All of the sudden, a camera pans to a couple that is in the middle of the aisle dancing. All of us can see them on the big screen and they looked to be really enjoying the dance. From where the camera is positioned I can only see gentleman that is dancing. It's Nick Viall, that idiot I talked with at the bar. I wonder if the girl he is dancing with is the one that he recently met. From the camera angle I can see that the two of them are in the same section that I'm sitting at, but a couple rows back.

I shift my body around and see that most of the audience has done the same thing to watch them dance. The girl's back was towards me so I'm not able to get a glance at her face. The women is wearing a very bland white gown that is tight fitting to her body. Kind of looks like a wedding dress due to that fact that it has a long wavy train. It has long sleeves and a large dip down her back that exposed a tattoo on her shoulder blade. Roman numerals if my eye sight is doing me justices. Her hair was in a long slick high pony. The two of them look like a wedding couple that is dancing to their wedding song. Nick still hasn't spun the girl all the way around for me, or anyone sitting in front, to see who she is.

The main camera continued to pan in and out from Gaga, the couple dancing and other celebrities looking at Gaga and the couple now. A lot of the celebrities seemed to enjoy the fact that someone is dancing and enjoying their time here.

Nick finally started to turn to the right and I was getting a slow revel of the girl. Little by little, as I was getting more of a revel, my blood started to boil. No. You've got to be kidding me. Her face keeps turning in my direction inch by inch and I already know who is going to show up. Nik… Ni… Nikita. Why the hell are they dancing together? Is she the girl that Nick was talking about?

She was looking all around her and then kept looking back at Nick. Nikita had a huge smile on her face and truly seemed to be enjoying herself. The two of them were swaying back and forth with a couple of turns in between.

She really did look beautiful. In such a plain dress, she carried it well.

 _When I bow down to pray_

 _I try to make the worse seem better_

 _Lord, show me the way_

 _To cut through all his worn out leather_

In front of me I see Andrew getting up and standing in front of Emma with an extended hand. Emma takes it and they too start to dance. What is going on here? The camera is panning from Nikita and Nick to Andrew and Emma and Gaga now.

As the song is coming to an end about four couples are it the aisles dancing and enjoying this "romantic" time. Lady Gaga finishes singing and applause fills the room. She takes a bow and then starts to clap herself and points to Nikita and Nick. I turn back around and see the both of them go back to their seats which are a couple rows back. Applause is still going on as Gaga leaves the stage. Once everything settles down the next presenter, Emma Watson, comes on stage and begins to talk.

At this point my mind is going a million miles per second. Are they together? There's no way, he was just on The Bachelor. Unless it didn't work out? But he would be in trouble with the network. Maybe they are friends? How did they meet? Why the hell did they start dancing? It seemed to go well with everyone else though.

More and more awards were getting announced and I not paying attention at all. I look to the side of me and see that Rose is enjoying herself. She keeps on smiling and clapping when the actor's name is announced. I wonder what she thought about Nikita dancing. I didn't get to see her reaction.

Within about a half hour, the show was over. Nick did present an award and he did a pretty good job. He was the only one on stage so he didn't have to worry about anyone. As the show came to a close people clapped for a while. Confetti fell from the ceiling and people started to get up and leave their seats. I stand up and reach for Rose's hand. She takes mine, we say goodnight to Ang and Brad and start to make our way out of the theater.

"Well, I had a good time, what about you?" Rose asks as we exit the theater and make our way down the steps and to our car.

"It was lovely just like you." I say and open the car door. Rose steps in and I close the door. I walk around the car and open the door for myself. I hop in, close the door and we set off.

"I was surprised to see Nikita there. She didn't tell me that is was going." Rose said in a low tone, even for me it was hard to hear. Maybe they aren't as good of friends anymore.

We sit quietly in the car ride and make our way back to the hotel. I look over at Rose before getting out, "No after party tonight?"

"I'm not in the mood, unless you want to?" she says in a tired voice.

"No, that's alright with me." I say as I open the door and let myself out. Rose steps out as well and we both enter the hotel. There were a couple of photographers in the lobby but nothing to crazy. They were ore interested in the getting photos and not interviewing.

We got up to our room in a jiffy and started to settle in for the night. Both of us changed into something more comfortable and decided to order room services. I threw on a pair of joggers and a v-neck. I ordered myself a hoagie and Rose got Alfred pasta. She was changing in her room still when I got the call that food was ready.

"Hey Rose, I am going to run down and pick up our food," I explain and head out the door. I wanted to pick up the food from the kitchen just so I can get out of the room. I head down the restaurant and tell the waiter that I'm here for pick up. I stand by the bar and wait for my food to come out.

I look out into the lobby and see some commotion going on. I see Ian Somerhalder and Paul Wesley surrounding a girl in the lobby. She seems to be wearing a romper the fit her to the T She turns around and to my not so surprise, Nikita. Man she is just all over the place tonight. From the corner of my eye I see Nick come over to the group and all of them have a little chat and head out the main door. I guess to an after party.

"Sir…Sir…" I faintly hear, "Your food is ready. Would you like to pay now or put it on your room bill?" I turn around and say to add it to my tab. With the food in my hands, I walk a bit towards the front entrance and see the group all pack into the car. The car disappears and I head back to my room.

When I walk in Rose is already sitting on the couch and looks famished. The night was washed away in a swiftly bliss.


	9. Chapter 9

"Are you ready? We have been preparing for this game for the past three months. It's going to be though out there. But we are home, we will have the crowd with us and WE. WILL. WIN."

Kyle screams to the team in the locker room and all the other players join in. Ah, he always knew how to give a great speech.

Today was the day of our pre-season home opener. The game is about to start off in a half hour and we still had to go out on the field and warm up.

"Alright," I yell out and all the players turn towards me, "time to get out and warm up." I turn around and head out the locker room and I hear others follow me.

Kyle catches up to me, "We better beat these assholes," he says in a loud huff.

Today we are playing the New York Giants and it will be a tough game. I know that Rose will be in the crowd routing for me up in a VIP box along with some over her other friends. For some reason I feel like the two of us are growing a part little by little but both of us are trying to make it work. But I can't think about that now, right now I can only focus on the game.

The team and I make it to the front of the stadium and we can see the field. From my vantage point I can see that almost half of the stadium is full. I run out on the field, the team following me, and we begin our warmup. Running up and down the field, me throwing the ball to other players from different angles, just warming up the muscles in general. Half way through the warm up the Giants team comes on the field and they start their warmup.

I look up at the clock on the billboard and notice that the countdown is at ten minutes. I see that some of the players have already left the field and went back to the locker room to change into their jerseys. I spot Kyle and both of us leave the field and leave it to the opponents.

I walk into the locker room and see most of the players changing. What a lovely sight. I just on my jersey and know that the game is about to start.

"Alright guys, let head to the front entrance," I say allowed and head off.

The team is in front of the entrance where we run out when our teams name is announced, fireworks go off and we break the large banner.

"And now…" the announcer said in the stadium, "please welcome the home team, the Philadelphia Eagles."

There is a roar in the crowd and the team and I run out into the field. With Kyle on my one side and the rest of the players behind me, we tear the banner while we run through and fireworks go off. We get to the right side of the field, the home side and we start to get ready.

The Giants team made their way out and they did get a-some-what loud response. They are on the left side of the stadium and warming up as well. We have about ten minutes to warm up now and then the coin toss. I look around the crowd and see mostly green and white jerseys so it was heartwarming that even though our team really sucked last season we still have fans. I take a second and look up at each VIP box that's on the home side of the stadium and see if I can spot Rose. Unfortunately I couldn't. Probably one of the cameras will pick her up and put her on the screen.

"Ladies and gentlemen," the announcer starts to speak, "if you can please stand and remove your hats and join in the sing of the national anthem."

Basically all of the fans stand up and the national anthem started to play through the loud speakers. All of the players stood in a straight line on the side line and either sang or put their hand over their heart. As the anthem comes to an end, more fireworks started and people became hyped.

Kyle and I ran out to the middle of the field and meet up with Eli Manning and Odell Beckham Jr. for the coin toss. I choose heads and won so we will be receiving the ball. We head back to our sideline and talk to our team members.

"Alright guys, we are receiving, let's move the ball and get open pass correctly," I say and say break with a clap. The special team heads out to the field and the ball get kicked.

The first half of the game went pretty smoothly, like a football game would go. At the moment the score is 14-13 Giants because our kicker missed the extra point kick. At least we aren't losing badly. I have been throwing the ball well, and Kyle and the rest of the players have been catching them. The crowd has our back so far so it's giving us energy.

Its half time now and both teams in separate locker rooms discussing how to finish the game. Our couch is just giving us the usual pep talk since we aren't losing so badly. Rose is still not to be found but I'm sure she is cheering me on.

The fifteen minutes went by quickly and we were out on the field by this point. I look over at all the VIP boxes again and finally notice Rose standing there. Well is about time I spot her. I can see her standing to one side of the room and talking to a gentlemen across from her. I wonder who he is. Maybe a manager?

Kyle comes up behind me, I turn around and whisper, "Middle VIP box, Rose," and walk away. Kyle takes a quick look and catches up to me.

"Who's that? A friend of hers?"

"I don't know," I say as I make my way to the bench. "I've never seen or meet him before."

I pick up a water bottle and take a big swig from it. I rinse it in my mouth and swallow. I look over at the time clock and see 0:45:37 seconds. I pick up my helmet from the bleacher and put it on my head.

"I'm sure it's not a big deal." I say, pat Kyle on the shoulder and run out to the field to warm up.

I hear the fans start to grow louder and louder within seconds. I look around the arena and see that people are starting to file in for the second half of the game. The one that my team and I are losing. I am standing in the middle of the field and the rest of the offense team runs towards me.

"Alright, Nick," I look at Nick and make sure to have his attention, "I want you to cut and go right. Kyle go deep in case there is coverage." I look at the rest of the team, we all nod our heads, clap our hands and yell break.

Throughout the next quarter the team has gotten back into rhythm. Throws are caught, passes are thrown well and the stadium is booming. The one thing that I can always count on are the fans. Their energy and thrill get me through games and allow me to really enjoy what I do.

With one quarter left to go we are ahead. But not by much, 28-26. All the guys get into their positions on the 32 yard line and I take mine behind the centerback. I see some of the men on the opposing team re-position and I have to act fast.

"Hike," I yell over the roaring fans, just loud enjoy of Hunter, our centerback, to hear.

He jolts the ball into my hands and guys sprint into action. I can see Kyle running to the right of me and try to make it to past center field. But he has two guys on him. I look over the center and see Ryan in the middle of the field wide open. I throw him the ball, he catches it and run a couple yards down. This type of playing continues for the rest of the game. Me throwing the ball, guys catching it and then run a few yards farther. No big plays happened in the second half of the game. No fumbles or interceptions.

Unfortunately we lose the game 31-28. But for the first game of the season, I will take it. Much better playing from the team and I compared to last season.

By this time I am roaming around the field trying to dodge all the reporters and interviews. I hate doing theme, especially after losing a game. I'm not in a good mood and I don't want to "blame" any of my team players on losing the game. Looking around I spot Rose near the home team benches. What is she doing on the field? Usually she doesn't come down unless we win a game, we just meet outside or in one of the VIP boxes she was watching the game from.  
Walking up to her, "Hey," I say aloud while going in for a hug, "what are you doing down here?"

She squeezes me tight, "Can't a girlfriend come down and support her boyfriend in his first game of the season?" She releases and plants a kiss on my cheek. How sweet.

"Awe, thanks," I say looking straight at her. "Wish we would have won though. It would have been nice for the fan and for the team."

She reaches for my hand and squeezes it. She seems to be either tired or upset. We stand there swing our hands back and forth for a little bit and she finally says, "Well, I think some of the girls and I are going to be headed out to a bar if you want to join."

I am too tired to be headed out to a bar right now. "I think I will pass, but feel free to stop by at the house later on." We say our goodbyes and I see her head off the field. I look once more around and see that most of my team members are back in the locker room already. I dragged my loser ass into the locker room and got changed into a regular pair of jeans and a t-shirt.

I am able to get to my car in back of the stadium in some peace and quiet. I bumped into two or three reporters but it wasn't anything out of the ordinary. I head back home to find that Kyle was already in my living room watch the recording of the game. It's a thing that we do. Sometimes just the two of us or the team as a whole. We would go over to someone's house and re-watch the game and critic ourselves. Something we picked up from playing football in high school.

"Hey man, getting started right away I see," I say as I take off my shoes and plop down on the sofa and stretch out.

"Well, we were so close to winning, I would like to see where it all went wrong." Kyle says. The nice thing about re-watching it on TV is that you're able to see all the fans reaction and other things on the field that we may have not been able to see.

After getting to halftime, Kyle and I were able to find some mistakes that would have helped us win the game. I go into the kitchen to fetch some type of snack, it's the halftime report on the TV anyway. I look into the pantry and see a pack of popcorn hidden away. I reach for it and throw it into the microwave for three minutes.

As I stand there, watching the timer on the screen get closer and closer to zero, I can hear Kyle in the next room let out, "Fuck. No. Hello no." Maybe there was a rowdy fan in the crowd. Without letting the timer reach zero, I grab the popcorn out and throw it into a bowl. I run into the room to see why Kyle is still throwing the F bomb all over the place. I look on the TV screen and see nothing of the unusual. Actually there is a commercial on for Underarmour. I look over at him and I see horror on his face.

"Okay, I am going to show you because you are my best man and I don't want you to find out through anywhere else." He says as he reaches for the remote in order to rewind. What the hell is he talking about? Was it about Rose? No, he wouldn't get that mad over something Rose did. Who else would get his blood rising?

Oh. Shit. I swear if this has anything to do with Nikita. Was she at the game? As he rewinds the TV screen, footage of fans entering and leaving the stadium appear. Most of them have foot in their hands.

As the footage keeps rewinding, It shows the VIP box where Rose and some of her friends were sitting. _Oh, there's the mystery guy._ And then the whole world started to spin. On top of the TV screen being on rewind x5. Maybe I just imagined it.

Kyle finally hits _Play_ on the remote and the speed goes to normal. I can see Rose standing very close to the guy, smiling, touching, playing carelessly with him. Then I see _her_ lean in for a kiss. She initiated it. I can see the guy start to respond and the camera cuts away to the panel of experts talking at halftime.

"Well, that's a bad time to find out," Joe Tessitore, the play-by-play analysts says with sorrow on his face.

"Oh, I hope Michael isn't able to see this in the locker room," Holly Rowe responds.

Other comments were said but I was in too much of a shock to hear it. No wonder she was acting weird and distant. Who the fuck is this guy. And for her to do it at one of my games. Maybe she was drunk? She didn't seem that way on the field, and that is still no excuse.

I stand there and chock and keep telling Kyle to rewind the screen. Each time I watch it, there is pain in my chest. I know we haven't been in the best position, but to do it on my territory, literally. Now I'm just getting mad. I reach for my phone in my back pocket and dial her number.

"Don't go crazy man," I hear Kyle in the background. I shoot him the middle finger and walk into the kitchen. Voicemail. Of course.

"Hey Rose, I'm sure you're busy hanging out with your friends and new boy-toy right now. I just saw a video on TV. I think we need to chat. So either call me or come over." I say and hang up the phone. I take a deep breath and let it out slowly.

I've broken up and have been dumbed before, but never cheated on. Epically in front of the public eye. But on the inside I'd like to think of myself as a good guy. Break-ups usually end well. I walk back to the living room and see CNN on.

"I didn't know if you wanted to keep watching the scene or the game in general." He says. I tell him I'm okay and we continue to watch the rest of the game. Throughout it, there was no mention of the Rose scene on TV or between Kyle and I. I'm surprised the media isn't outside my door now.

The evening stayed pretty quiet from then on. I got a text from Rose saying that she was going to stop by later in the night. I didn't respond back, figured let it be. Kyle and I did order some pizza from Papa Johns because we weren't in the mood of cooking or going out. When the delivery guy came to the door, he "fangirled" at first and then said, "sorry to hear the bad news."

Well shit. We ate the pizza in peace and watched some of the news. On the channels like TMZ and E! news, the video was going around. Speculations that the relationship wasn't doing well, or that we already broke up, or that I dumbed her for my career were already going around.

It wasn't until ten o'clock that I heard the doorbell ring. Must be Rose. I open the door and see her standing there with sorrow on her face. She comes in and Kyle already disappeared to what I imagine being the basement.

Our conversation lasted about a half hour. There was crying and I started to get a quiver in my throat too. We talked about how we haven't been that happy anymore and how we are living to different lives. She apologized excessively. She felt awful about it and I could really tell. I reassured her it's alright and that we were going to be okay. We hugged and held each other for a bit and she finally got up.

I walked her to the door and finally asked her my burning question, "Who is he anyway?"

"An old friend from high school actually. I guess we just re-kindled." She said with a smile. At least she's happy.

"Well, feel free to come and see more games during the season if you'd like. Just please don't kiss him in front of me," I say quietly.

"I understand. And again, I am so sorry," she lets out and gives me a final hug. I say goodbye and she disappears into the night and out of my life.


	10. Chapter 10

"Can you tell us what happened?" One reporter shouted.

"How did you find out?" Another followed.

"Did she cheat on you?" And another.

"Did you break up with her?" And another.

All these questions were being yelled at me as I left the house the next morning. I knew this would somehow be the talk of the city at some point. Last night I wrote out a statement after Rose left and send it to her for approval. She was completely fine with it.

I walked out to the front lawn in order to get to my car so Kyle and I could get to a diner. As I swamped with reporters, so I took out my statement and started to read;

 _"_ _As many of you have heard, or seen, Rose Smith and I are no longer together. The two of us have decided to go our separate ways. No one is at fault in this relationship. No one cheated, no one broke up with anyone. This was a mutual decision. We both wish each other the best of luck in our careers and new relationships and will continue to stay in touch. Now if everyone will excuse me, I'm I need of some breakfast."_

With that, I start to go for my car. There were still some reporters asking questions but most of them excepted the statement. During breakfast there were a couple of stares and low comments from observers. It was going to be like this for the next couple of days to a week.

The rest of the day I had nothing planned excepted for a five hour practice. That was around noon and it felt good to be around the guys. Those sick nasty guys. As I walked into the locker room there photos of playboy bunnies, subscriptions to porn sites, and random phone numbers of what I presume are from girls. Everything to make a man happy all in one room.

"You guys really know how to please a man," I say to the team, "make me kind of scared." Laughter explodes in the room. It's really good to be back with the guys.

"I say we hit the town tonight." Nick from the back of the room yells out.

"Yeah," everyone agrees, "boys night."

"We'll see. Matters how we feel after this practice. There is a lot that we need to work on." I say to the crowd. On that note we are out the locker room in on the field doing our drills.

Practice kicked my ass. All of ours. I don't think any of the guys are going out tonight. At least I'm not. I make it back to the house around six o'clock and there were still a couple of stragglers by my gate. I drive pass them and make it into the house in peace.

For dinner I make myself some rice and plain chicken. I get myself comfortable on the couch and eat in peace. I flip through channels and finally resort to Netflix, How To Get Away With Murder. This show has got me hooked. My cell phone rings and breaks my concentration. Wonder who that could be. Not many people have my phone number.

I reach in my pocket and see that the area code is from California. I decide to pick it up.

"This is Michael." I stay in a stern voice.

"Hello Mike, My name is Chris Harrison. I work with the television provide ABC and would like to speak to you about the possibility of being the main focus on one of our shows." Well, this is unexpected.

"Oh hey there. I'm not too big of a fan of reality TV." I say quickly, "Which show is this for?"

"We understand that it's a bit early," he says hesitantly, "but we are hoping you could be the next bachelor for The Bachelor." Damn, that is early. Wasn't that one guy from the Oscars on that show?

"Oh wow. Is it okay if I think about it?" I reply.

"Not a problem," Chris says, "And even before you make your decision, we would be more than happy to have a meeting and just talk about the show and your possibilities."

"I appreciate that. Do you have a number I can contact you with, or is the number you are calling from okay?" I ask and quickly switch from Netflix to Amazon Prime.

"This number is perfectly fine," he explains in a chippy voice. "Hopefully you consider the opportunity and feel free to give me a call about anything."

"I will get back to you soon," I reply say goodbye and hang up.

At this point my TV screen is on the home screen of Amazon Prime and in the search bar I spell out _The Bachelor_. The first option that comes up is Season 16 with Nick Viall as The Bachelor. $29.99 for the whole season. Ehhhh, do I really want to watch it? Am I even interested?

I phone Kyle and tell him the news, "Do it man, maybe you'll find yourself a wife. Plus there's usually so many hot girls there." Great advice.

"I don't know man, maybe I'll watch a couple of episodes and get the feel for it." I say and I keep scrolling through the episode guide.

"Well wait for me to come over! I want to see all the girls." Kyle says and hangs up the phone. He lives online five minutes away from me so he was at my house fairly quick. "Okay let's start!"

I buy the first two episodes of Nick's season and hit play. The first half hour was the show introducing Nick and the girl contestants. A lot of them are in their mid-twenties which is a bit strange since Nick is in his early thirties. But a lot of them seem like they could be a good match. Most of them are realtors, there is a lawyer and a teacher in the mix too. Girls from all over the country and even from Canada.

As we continued watching, I got more and more into it. Embarrassingly. The first episode consists of Nick meeting the ladies for the first time and everyone getting to know each other. Some of the arrivals were interesting. One girl come on top of a horse, one came in a shark suit and others came out of the limo like regular people.

Throughout the night, the camera followed Nick as he talked to the girls one on one and drama already started in the house. I guess because girls were already throwing themselves at him and he was all for it. If I were to do this show I don't think I would be kissing anyone, let alone multiple girls on the first night. Towards the end of the night, Nick had to give out the first impression rose. The first impression rose meant that that girl was safe until the next elimination. Basically put a target on that girl's back. Nick gave the rose to the teacher.

Once he gave the first impression rose to her, it seemed like elimination was right after words. On the first night Nick sent home four girls. They seemed to be heart broken. Which I find so weird because they only knew him for what, six hours. On the show we are able to see the girls tear up when the leave the house and the others celebrate that they made it through.

Kyle and I finish watching the first episode and look at each other.

"You have to do it man," he says right away.

"I don't know man. I have to see if I can even get off for the team. It may be during the season." I say as I stand up to stretch.

"Oh I'm sure coach will let you do it. It's free publicity."

"I may call Chris tomorrow. I'm too tired right now." I say as a reference for him to get out. He finally gets the hint after a while and leaves. I set up for bed, turning my phone on airplane mode and drift to sleep right away.

I woke up a little later than usual this morning, nine am. When I turned my phone off silent I got many notifications from news outlets and a couple texts from Rose. Wonder what she wants.

 _Were you really asked to be the next Bachelor?_

 _That's great honestly, I would support your decision to take the offer._

Looking at the other news outlets, apparently they got the word that I was thinking about it. Damn the media moves fast. But I have been thinking about it and it doesn't seem too bad of an idea. There are a lot of questions that I have though. Maybe I should call Chris and set up a meeting.

I roll out of bed, get myself ready for the day, walk downstairs and make myself breakfast. As soon as I finish eating, I whip out my phone, go to recent calls and dial back Chris's number.

Two rings go by, "Michael, so glad to hear from you."

"Good morning Chris, I was hoping to set up a meeting. I do have a few questions before I give my final decision." I say as I open the fridge and put away the OJ.

"I would be disappointed if you didn't", Chris responds. "What are your plans for tonight. Again, I apologize for the rush, but it's almost Bachelor season." Yes, this does seem to be going to bit fast.

"Not a problem, I am actually free all day today. So whenever is best for you." I respond.

"Well how about the two of us and the producer, Jerry Write, grab some dinner and hopefully we can answer all of your questions." He says and starts typing on what I presume is s computer.

"Sounds like a plan, how about 5 o'clock at the Trump hotel restaurant?" I ask the question making it sound more like a statement.

"Sounds great, I will see you later today," Chris says before hanging up the phone.

I set the phone down on the counter and hit the shower. Once out, I dry myself up, get redressed and phone Kyle. He was more than happy that I decided to meet with Chris. I reminded him that I didn't agree to do the show just yet. It didn't matter to him.

The rest of day I actually spent watching more episodes of The Bachelor. By the time it was four o'clock and I had to get going, I only had two episodes left. Nick was down to three girls, JoJo, Mary, and Samantha. Secretly, I hope he picks Samantha, but I will never admit that.

I get off the couch, lock up the house and head out the door to the Trump Hotel, which is about a fifteen minute drive from the house. But in New York traffic, during rush hour, it usually take me a half hour. By the time I get there, I see that some of the hotel guests are there for their dinner too. I walk up to the host and tell him that I have a meeting with Chris Harrison for five o'clock. I am able to get a table right away, farther in the back of the restaurant.

I wait for about ten minutes and a waitress comes up to me. It takes her seconds to realize who I am. I ask her for a glass of water with a lemon and let her know that I am waiting for the rest of my party to join me. A little hesitant and with a smile, she leaves to fetch my drink.

Out of the corner of my eye I see two figures approach my table. "Hello Michael," what sounds like Chris's voice.

"Good evening Chris," I say as I stand up and reach out to shake his hand. He returns the shake. I look over to the second person standing next to Chris, "Jerry, I presume."

"Yes, a pleasure to meet you Michael." He extends a hand and I shake it. I wave other to the two chairs beside me as a signal for them to take a seat. They do so. "How are you doing so far? I hear a lot has been happening," Jerry lets out casually.

"Yes, it's been a hectic week, with the break-up, practice, paparazzi and now," I say as I reach for the menus and pass them around, "a potential TV show."

As Chris opens his menu, "Yes, we are very interested in you being the next Bachelor. Usually it's one of the previous season contestant, but we figured it was perfect timing as well as you're one of America's sweetheart and we do want to see you happy."

I did sound sincere. "I don't know," I started to say until our waiter strolled over. We each gave them our order and then went back to the conversation at hand. "I don't know how I will be able to swing this and practice all at the same time."

"Well we actually talked to your head couch already and we seemed to have worked out a plan. But again, we can always change dates and time to whatever is best for you," Jerry says quickly.

Wow. I'm shocked that they already talked to my head couch. I wonder what he thinks about the whole idea.

"We discussed, if you agree of course," Chris explained while waving in my direction for approval, "that we would start filming sometime in December. Of course, if the team makes if far into the playoff season, we will post-pone the filming." Chris said with a smile as he took a sip of his Corona Light.

I'm sure that won't be a problem I thought to myself and explained aloud. The two of the men chuckled. We talked a little bit more about the filming process as we waited for our food to come.

"So, whenever you make your decision," Jerry explains, "we will set up another meeting to sign paperwork and answer any more questions that you have." As he says this, our waiter plus another comes up with our plates of food. They set it down and leave after saying "Enjoy".

As Chris starts to cut into his stake, "And take all the time that you need to come up with your final answer."

"Yes, I defiantly will." And with that, the next ten minutes or so, we spend in silence devouring our food.

"So any other questions you have for us?" The two men look at me.

"Yes," I say sheepishly, "How do you choose the contestants. Like," I stutter out, "how do you know if I will be interested in any of them?" If I go through this process and all the girls are not interesting, this will be a complete waste of time.

"Good question, we don't want to waste your time." Chris stated like he was reading my mind. "After we get all the paper work finished, we would sit down with you again and basically interview you. What you look for in a relationship, what physically attracts you. Down to even what kind of dates you like to go on, because we do plan out the one-on-one and group dates as well. So we look at the applicants and play match maker." He explains step by step while setting aside his plate.

"Oh, okay, that interesting," I say aloud. Well, that made me feel a little better. At least I get I _some_ choice in the contestants.

All of us finish our meals and the waiter comes back, "Can I get anyone some coffee or dessert for the evening?"

We all say pass and the check comes out, "This will be on us," Jerry says as he grabs bill. How nice.

"Well, thank you so much," I say in their directions and reach for my jacket behind the chair. "I will defiantly let you know of my choice soon." We shake hands and say our goodbyes.

I head out of the restaurant and back home for the evening. I kind of want to watch more episodes of the show. That and the Packers vs Steelers game is on soon.

When I get back to the house, it's completely dark and silent. I'm kind of surprised that Kyle is sitting in my living room getting ready for the game. I check my phone for the first time since the meeting and I see a text from Kyle and two missed calls from Rose. Oh boy, what is it now.

I press redial and after two rings she picks up, "So, any exciting news you want to tell me?"

Is she talking about the show? I won't call is exiting. Is she mad that I may be dating so soon again? She doesn't really have that right. "Are you talking about The Bachelor?"

"Of course," she responds in a cheerful tone. "Kyle told me about it, plus I'm seeing photos of you and Chris Harrison at dinner from tonight." She explains to me before I can question her.

"So," I say with a huff, "do you think I should go for it?" I ask her since she seems okay with the topic. It's actually kind of nice to get some else's opinion on it rather than Kyle's. And since we've been friends for so long the break-up wend so smoothly, I felt like we were still close enough to talk it out as friends.

"I honestly think it's a great idea. It'll get you out into the open market," she says with a laugh, "You'll be able to meet all different types of ladies and I think it may even help your career. I just don't know how you can film and play." She voiced concern.

"Well," I say with a huff while sitting back on the couch in the dark room, "I think we will be able to figure that out, if I agree to all of this."

"Well, if anyone asks, you have my full support in this. I really do want you to be happy, and I think this experience will bring you one step closer." She explains in a sincere voice and I think she really means it.

"Well, I really appreciate and I am really considering it. Does it really get this crazy though? I've watch some…" I let out before she cuts me off.

"You watched episodes? Oh, you are defiantly going to do it then. I'm going to love watching you," she says through the phone excitedly. "And yes, I think most of it is honestly production, but it gets real towards the end. I start routing for a particular guy or girl. I think the only hard part will be not being able to see the person you propose to for about four months after production."

Wait. What. Why didn't Chris tell me this?

"Is that true?" I ask Rose with sorrow in my voice that I didn't expect. I don't want to get engaged and not see my future wife for four months. "Why?"

"I thought you knew this," Rose answers, "well, the two of you can't be seen in public cause that would give the winner away. So you're not allowed to be seen, but I'm sure people usually just facetime throughout the months. But nothing in person during the film editing and when the TV show is airing. "

"Well that suck," I reply as I reach over to the coffee table to the TV remote to put on the TV. It automatically is on ESPN to watch the game. "I knew nothing of this."

"Well, think about it, and I hope everything works out for you." She says to end the conversation.

"Thanks for calling and for having my back," I say.

"Of course, and feel free to call anytime." She lets out before hanging up the phone.

That was exceptionally nice of her. She was always a very caring person.

The rest of the night I watch the football game and ponder on this while TV show idea. There seem to be pros and cons about the whole thing. But the production team, and even my football team apparently, seem to be very welcoming to the idea. As soon as the game ended, the Packers won, I switched to more episodes of the show.

After watching almost two and a half episodes I pick up my phone and dial back Chris Harrison. He picks up after one ring.

"Hello Chris," I say aloud in the dark room, "I'm in."


End file.
